Aftershocks
by Professional Magical Girl
Summary: After the death of Koro-sensei, they are just putting their lives back together. Series of oneshots/drabbles. Rated T to be safe, rating may change.
1. Silence

**Mandatory disclaimer: I do not own Assassination Classroom. If I did Nagikae, Karmanami, and Chibahaya would all have happened.**

* * *

"… Ryuunosuke Chiba. Stop rejecting my calls. This is the ninth time today. Pick up the phone, or so help me-"

 _Click._

 _Message deleted. To hear your other messages, press one. To exit your inbox, press seven-_

 _Click._

Ryuunosuke Chiba was sitting perched in a tree in the woods, on the top of the mountain. Ryuunosuke Chiba, who had been dodging the enumerable texts and calls from his (understandably) concerned family. Ryuunosuke Chiba, who along with his partner Rinka Hayami had been known as the best sharpshooters in Class 3-E of Kunugigaoka Junior High, the Assassination Classroom.

 _Had_ been known.

It was like a dam burst at that exact second. There was no chance on earth that he could hold back the tears. He held his face, though there was no one around to witness his breakdown. Not right now, at this very moment.

He felt bad ignoring his family, after all they did for him. But he really just didn't want to talk to anyone right now. It was less than 24 hours after Koro-sensei's death. What Chiba wanted was to be alone.

He liked the solitude. The tranquility the mountain offered. The mountain was barricaded off by the government. They seriously thought that that would stop E Class from getting in.

Amidst the storm of tears, Chiba cracked a smirk. Those silly government agents. Chiba was quiet and observant. He would hear one of them approaching from a hundred feet away and either climb further up the tree or make a quick, silent escape. And if any one of his classmates was here, they'd do the same. A full year of training to be an assassin pays off.

"… Hey." One of his classmates indeed was here. He knew who she was just by her voice, though he hadn't heard it as much as he would have liked to. He didn't even need to look down. He heard hands brushing against tree bark, light breathing, then found himself with a companion.

Rinka Hayami. His aforementioned partner. The only person in the class arguably more stoic than he. But it was perhaps because of that that Chiba found himself drawn to her. She wasn't driven by emotion like Kayano, she wasn't consistently the center of attention like Kanzaki, and she didn't tease like Nakamura. She was a constant in his universe.

The tears ceased to be. Not because he was embarrassed at crying in front of Hayami- he was fine with that- but because he didn't feel the need to cry anymore.

Over these past months, he felt that they had come to a mutual understanding of each other. So he could tell without so much as throwing a glance at her that she was apprehensive. It was obvious by her breathing, the way he felt her sway on the branch. It was ever so slightly, to avoid the risk of falling off, but in a mood that was 'normal' for her she wouldn't be moving at all.

They sat for… Ten minutes? Thirty minutes? An hour? Neither was sure exactly how much time had passed until one said something.

"You wanted the peacefulness too."

Chiba wanted to slap himself. That was the dumbest thing he said all month! Maybe all year. He knew her well. He knew she liked the stillness, the silence just as much as he did. He need not even ask why she was here.

"Uh-huh." She nodded in the dark. It came out as more of a guttural sound than a word.

Chiba distracted himself with the moon. It looked almost yellow tonight. The crescent shape would soon crumble, or so the news said. Stars danced around it. Chiba racked his head for what Koro-sensei had taught them. How many stars were in the universe, again? 100 billion in the Milky Way galaxy alone. Yet their problems seemed bigger than that.

Chiba broke the silence by gasping aloud. Hayami reacted in kind, shocked that he would have an interjection like that at this time (not shocked it was wordless, that was par for the course).

The sniper pointed towards the eastern sky. His finger trembled. "L-Look at that." It was a whisper, barely audible.

The teenaged girl trembled when she saw what he pointed to. A constellation that she never saw before. It looked like Koro-sensei. His head in a shaky oval, two wavy lines on either side of it, like his tentacles. A big smile. And two stars for his beady eyes.

It looked like a messy drawing of their teacher, one a child might have created with fingerpaints. And both of the sniper duo were sure that their classmates had noticed it, if not will notice it soon. And furthermore, they were sure that no one but E Class could see it.

It was then that Hayami started to cry. She hid her face too. Even her cries were soundless. Chiba only knew she was crying because he felt her pain. He wanted to wipe away her tears.

Finally revealing her face, she switched to playing with her hair to give her hands something to do. Her green eyes sparkled with a slight dampness that was only seen out of the corner of her friend's vision.

"Do you…"

Her friend was lost in his own thoughts. How long had that constellation been there? Did he just not notice it for a while? After all, he didn't spend much time just staring at the sky. Would it stay? How long would it stay?

It was quite a while before he actually realized that Hayami had spoken to him. "Hmm?"

"Do you think.." She changed the task used to occupy her hands, they now grasped the hemline of her jeans. "Do you think that he's watching over us? Is that why the stars appeared?"

"I don't know." He let it out as sigh. After a pause, he added "I always got better grades in math than anything that involved analyzing symbols."

"I remember that time you got a D on that quiz on _Fahrenheit 451_. And you wouldn't talk to Koro-sensei for a week." She giggled for the first time in a long time, and her red face was no longer wet.

Chiba blushed. "Something about what the sleeping pills represented. Hey don't laugh at me; I still have that picture of you at the pet shop."

"Fine." She abruptly grunted.

They returned to a noiseless night. The only soundtrack was their breathing, their hearts beating.

That was the wonderful thing about Hayami, Chiba thought. He could sit with her and not have to say a word, and she would understand. They could sit for hours like this, and it would be perfectly comfortable rather than awkward. Actually it was more likely to be awkward if they _did_ speak.

And then Hayami spoke. "I think he is."

Chiba didn't expect that from her.

"Watching over us, I mean. You felt it when you woke up, didn't you?"

He gulped. "Yes, like there was another presence in my room. I didn't think it was him until you mentioned it, though."

"… But according to the group chat, most of the rest of the class didn't even sleep last night. So I guess it's something only we share."

Another pause.

"This may sound silly, but…" It was hard for Hayami to say, but it had to come off of her chest. She'd been thinking about it all day, all of yesterday. "It feels like Koro-sensei left us behind. I feel a little bit betrayed. He was smart, I'm sure he could have found a way out of the anti-tentacle barrier. But he left us. He let us go." She didn't cry this time, she just poured her heart out to her good friend. This was the only place she would do that.

He listened intently. Their conversation wasn't awkward or bumbling this time. It was therapeutic, freeing. Like getting to sleep after a long day of school.

"And who else will? If that can happen with Koro-sensei, who's to say it won't happen to anyone else!? And I'm not talking death- I mean what If I lose contact with someone else special. Yada or Kurahashi-"

The redhead was getting animated now. She stood up on the branch.

"Or… You." The sentence was finished with a whisper.

Chiba wasn't sure how to respond to that last part, but he had an idea. "Shout."

She blushed. "What?"

"Just let it all out. Scream. If you still have a voice after this, you did it wrong."

Hayami deeply inhaled, then let it all out. "I just can't believe this happened to me! To _us_! To _everyone_! The media tries to paint us as victims, and it's so… So wrong! I may have voted 'kill' a few months ago, but now I want Koro-sensei back! Give him back! Don't let us go, Koro-sensei!"

She shouted more loudly than she'd ever shouted anything before. She spent the next few moments catching her breath. Then she tumbled down and fell off the branch.

Panicking, Chiba scrambled to reach for her. Everything seemed to happen in slow-motion. There were bushes full of poison ivy all over this mountain! And some thorny plants. And sharp rocks. Who knew what was beneath them, what the darkness disguised?

At last, there was a connection. He felt her warm hand touch his. He didn't even have the self-awareness to blush right now. He simply focused on her breathing, her facial expressions that he could now see up close. His mouth unintentionally opened and his feelings escaped.

"… I won't ever let you go. _Ever_."

Hayami let all the tension in her body go as Chiba helped her up. Her other hand found its way to his.

 _Thank you_. She tried to say, but she was too hoarse after that. _I won't ever let you go either,_ she added in her thoughts.

"Hey! Who's over there!?" An unrecognizable voice called out, accompanied by a bright light that ruined the atmosphere that only 10 pm on a Monday could set. Oh crap. A government goon.

It was a matter of instinct, the sniper duo climbed the trees without even discussing the plan. They reached the very top, and kept an eye on their assailant.

"Where are you? It better not be one of those damn kids…" The goon waved his flashlight to the left, to the right, forwards, and back… But never above. The duo made eye contact, now they were illuminated by the stars. They smiled.

"Ugh, I must be hallucinating…" The government guy rubbed his head and sauntered off.

From where they were now, they got a much better view the sky. The schoolhouse was behind them. They couldn't look at it for too long, the nostalgia was too much. But their view to the front was breathtaking.

All of Kunugigaoka spread out in front of them. Lights everywhere, as businesses were open late during spring break. Their eyes were sharp enough to discern that people were moving through the streets. It could only be speculated who exactly they were, or where they were going. Maybe some of them were their classmates. Or maybe their classmates were also on the mountain. They could have asked Ritsu about that, but it seemed best to respect everyone's privacy right now.

Chiba gave Hayami the closest, most observant look he'd ever given her. The view from atop Mount Fuji couldn't possibly have been beautiful compared to what he saw now. He suppressed the urge to run his fingers through her hair, which flowed in orange locks today rather than her usual pigtails.

The moment was interrupted with a _buzz_. It was Chiba's mother again. He rejected the call for the tenth time today, but instead sent her a text.

 _Headed right home_.

Having exhausted their vocabularies for the day, the pair climbed down the tree. They knew that it was now time to go home.

Chiba closely flanked Hayami, knowing that she'd correctly interpret this as _I'll walk you home_. She nodded. The pair cast one final, knowing look at the sky, hand in hand.

The stars shone cold and bright above them. The moon was the only witness to their night. The moon and Koro-sensei.


	2. Desperation

**This is my first attempt at writing a drabble. Let me know how I did in the reviews.**

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Kirara Hazama was not beautiful. Or graceful. Or charming.

That much she was aware of. She was used to the taunting of the schoolyard boys and girls since kindergarten. They'd throw mud at her and call her an oni. Of course, that always backfired when she'd cackle, give them the evil eye, and claim she was actually one.

They would run away screaming for mommy, and she'd call the school complaining that a very scary girl had harassed their poor little Subaru or Sakura, Hazama would get reprimanded, and that would only feed into the cycle more.

This was the story of Kirara Hazama's life.

So why was it bothering her now that this pattern had continued into high school?

Hazama sat in the third stall of the girls' bathroom, staring at the wall. They were only two weeks into the new school year. And several of her peers had already found something to make fun of. The books she brought to class ("Lovecraft? Eww."). Her hair ("Don't you ever cut it of anything?"). Her sense of humor ("You're not funny").

It had been four weeks since the death of Koro-sensei.

Thing may have been more complicated in E Class (Having to kill your teacher really does dwarf the concern of whether or not you had a pimple on your face), but she had friends there.

If Terasaka, Yoshida, Muramatsu, and Itona were here right now, she'd commiserate with them. But she couldn't see them until this weekend. If Kurahashi were here, they'd go catch some creepy bugs together. Now they were finally emerging after the winter. Hell, Hazama regretted not getting to know Okuda better. She admired her classmate's excellence in everything that wasn't the written or spoken word. Maybe they'd have brought out good things in each other.

But it was too late for that.

Hazama heard footsteps entering the bathroom. _If someone tries to knock on this stall, I'll just pretend to be Hanako the Toilet Ghost,_ she thought, flipping the 'assassin' switch. That trick usually worked in elementary school.

Hazama felt relief wash over her when the sink ran, and the footsteps echoed away. Good. She had another 20 minutes before lunch ended.

If she were still in E Class, she wouldn't give bullies a second thought. She'd have something witty to say and they'd run, tails between their legs. Then Karma Akabane would usually high-five her. And everyone would go back to the everyday business of trying to kill their teacher and proving the rest of the school wrong when they aced their exams.

In E Class, it didn't matter that she wasn't beautiful or graceful or charming. It didn't matter that she didn't fit in. No one there fit in. So they all didn't fit in together.

But she felt like she lost a part of herself when she was one of 26 who held down their teacher, and Nagisa Shiota drove that knife into Koro-sensei's chest. And when the yearbooks were handed out and goodbyes were said. And when she walked through the front gates of her High School for the first time.

Objectively, killing Koro-sensei may have been the 'right' thing to do. But that thought was no solace to her today. Nor was it when she went to bed on March 14th. It wouldn't be for months.

She recalled her words during the civil war game. How she picked the kill side with such certainty.

 _"The life of this planet and the life of our respected teacher… It's too painful to weigh one against the other!"_

Tears rolled down her cheeks. _I fought so hard for this… Why am I regretting it?_


	3. Nostalgia

**Response to dark-princess 238: Yes, there will be at least one chapter for each student. Some will share a chapter (like Chiba and Hayami). Some will have more than one. But expect at least 28 chapters for this.  
**

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Yada Touka was distracted by the setting sun. She always admired the way the sky turned blue, to orange, to pink, and then to dark blue, then black.

"Yada-chan! Will you be joining us at karaoke tonight?"

Her new friend's voice derailed her metaphorical train of thought. "Yes, Haruko-chan! I'll be at the station at eight!" She cheerily responded.

And with that, Haruko walked off with two other classmates, giggling and gossiping. But Yada stayed put.

Now that she was alone with her thoughts, she sat down on the bench outside the school building. She had already been here at this high school for a month, and yet she was still learning the layout of the campus. Her bones ached, and she felt temped to just lie there and take a nap.

She had been trying to fill her days with activities, to fill the void that the Assassination Classroom had left. Every day, there was something on her schedule. Monday, she spent studying for her test. Tuesday, she entertained her visiting relatives. Wednesday she insisted on meeting with her group early to get that project done. And Thursday was her brother's birthday, so she spent it with him and refused to so much as glance at her phone. She knew the rest of E Class sent her a million stickers on Line. She still had yet to look at them. And on Friday she tutored a classmate who had trouble with English.

That brought her to today, Saturday. She had agreed to go with her new friends to the karaoke place downtown. Sigh. In truth, she wanted to flake out. Just call them and say she came down with the stomach flu or something.

There were a hundred reasons why. She had a long week. Her allergies were acting up. She had another big test coming up on Monday. Grandma sometimes showed up unannounced on Saturday nights; she would want to hear about how Yada was doing in high school.

But the reason that stood at the back of her mind the most was that she used to go to that same place all the time last year. With Kayano (who had the most lovely singing voice). With Okano (who would blush throughout the entire song and hide her face when the scoring part came up). With Kataoka (who would loudly sing Broadway showtunes, shocking everyone). Sometimes they got Kanzaki to join them (her father wouldn't let her stay out so late very often). Usually it was just the four or five of them.

They would dance and sing. They would fill the small room with laughter, so much that other patrons would complain. On a few occasions they had other friends join them. Maehara would end up embarrassing Okano, and Isogai or Kataoka would have to intervene to get her to calm down. Rio would sing something dirty and make the rest of them become very interested in their phones for the following four and a half minutes.

One time Koro-sensei was hiding behind the door, listening in on their conversations and songs. They only noticed him there when Kurahashi got up to use the restroom, and they pulled him into the room to whip out the anti-sensei weapons they carried at all times. Amidst the panic and chaos, their beloved sensei huffed out that he "just wanted to know their gossip for the book he was writing!"

Though it was supposedly a joke, in truth Yada wanted to read that book. What role would she have played in Koro-sensei's novel? Maybe she would be a romantic hero, or the underdog of the story. But it didn't matter anymore. The book would never be published, would never make the bestseller list, would never sit on her shelf at home.

By the time Yada had reached that conclusion, the horizon had swallowed the last bits of the sun, and the dark blue was taking over the sky.

Yada looked upwards. She could see the faintest twinkle of starlight. She focused on the eastern sky, knowing it would be there. The Koro-sensei constellation, as E Class has christened it. Her fingers trembled on her phone as the constellation became more and more visible.

She could have sworn she saw it wink at her. Taking that as a sign, she unlocked her phone and opened Line. She gasped at the message she saw.

 **Kataoka Megu: Yada-san, we know you've been busy recently, but just know that we miss you and you can talk to us anytime you want, okay?**

And it was liked by the rest of the class.

What should she do with this? Smiling, Yada began her walk to the station, thinking of a response for her old friends.

 **Yada Touka: Thanks, I want to talk now.**


	4. Weakness

**I've been doing a lot of brainstorming for these oneshots, and I got ahead of myself and have already written out quite a few that take place in the future (7 plus years after the death of Koro-sensei). I'm excited to post them, but so far these chapters have been taking place in a linear fashion.**

 **So I'm looking for opinions. Should I: a) Wait until the story reaches that point (probably won't be for another year or so in real time) to add them to this collection; b) Just post the oneshots as I complete them, which would lead the story to jump back and forth in time (which might be confusing for some); or c) Post the future oneshots as a separate collection so I can go at my own pace.**

 **Please leave your thoughts in the reviews.**

 **Shout out to darkprincess238 and TheRoseShadow21 for the lovely reviews. I hope you all like my attempt at a stream of consciousness-style drabble.**

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Hinano Kurahashi was woken up at 11:36 at night, drenched in sweat and her heart pounding.

As of recently, this was typical for her. It would happen at least twice, sometimes thrice a week, since the death of Koro-sensei.

Just like all those other nights, she had had a bad dream reliving the assassination. She focused on the tiny, specific details that didn't even occur to her at the time. The exact cadence of her heartbeat when he called her name for their final role call. The sound Nagisa's knife made when it slid into Koro-sensei's heart (one solid motion- a _swoosh_ ). The mild chill of the early spring night, how it stung her cheeks. How one of Kayano's tears fell on her. She didn't notice it, but 11:36 was the exact time of the assassination.

 _Assassination_. A simple word. Five syllables long. She had heard it day in and day out for a year. _Ass-ass-in-a-tion_. The first two made you giggle, the third tickles your tongue, the fourth is pronounced in the throat, and by the time you came to the fifth syllable the gravity of what you meant was sinking in.

Careful not to wake her parents on the other side of the hotel room, she got up and walked to the balcony. Oh that's right, she was in Osaka right now. On the day of graduation, her parents would not let go of her, sobbing that their poor precious little girl was caught up in such a disaster, dealing with that monster every day. She didn't even bother to explain to them how far that was from the truth. They embraced her and cried, and promised to take her to Osaka over Golden Week to see one of the biggest aquariums in the entire world. Considering that she had been begging them to bring her since she could speak coherent sentences, she was grateful.

And when she arrived, well she was like a kid in a candy shop. Bouncing around the aquarium, bright-eyed and her smile big. She pictured riding on the back of a dolphin. Or diving down the Mariana trench and getting up close to an anglerfish.

But that day she found herself drawn to the octopi. Even more so than the exotic creatures, the penguins, the tropical sea turtles. No, something she could find scuba diving right off the coast of Japan was what enthralled her the most.

She loved all animals, true, but she had never given a second thought to octopi until now. One climbed on the glass of the exhibit, she could have sworn it stared her in the eye. It tapped the glass with the sucker on its tentacle. She admired the way it always looked like it was deep in thought.

Koro-sensei was also an octopus who was always deep in thought, though he didn't look like it. He looked so silly, with his dozens of tentacles flailing everywhere whenever Kataoka accused him of stockpiling snacks in the teachers' lounge. That was one of the things that Kurahashi loved about him. It comforted her that he chose that form. He wanted to be weak. She found that noble. Something she wanted to be.

She remembered the common octopus she saw, gliding through the water. How ironic was it, that her beloved teacher was an octopus who couldn't swim? But he could glide through the air just like that. He swam in the air. He swam all across the world, from Tokyo to Mumbai to Moscow to Paris to Los Angeles and then back to Tokyo for the next day of school.

And one time, he brought them. Because "yearbook photos on campus aren't enough, I want to see the _world_ with my students!" So she went on her own little world tour with all of her friends. She rode the London Eye with Okano and wiped pigeon shit out of Terasaka's hair in New York City (Hey, someone had to do it). Koro-sensei had even taken a group photo of them in the Colosseum of Rome.

That one time was a mere two months ago. It seemed like a fairy tale to her now.

The Osaka skyline was lit up, even at this time of night. This was another one of those cities that never slept, just like all those places that Koro-sensei brought them to. The Koro-sensei constellation glimmered, and she found it brighter and more comforting than any of the buildings in this city. She smiled at it, wiping away a few tears.

Tomorrow was going to be another early day, her parents were taking her to the Umeda Sky Building. So Kurahashi went back to bed, and cuddled the little plush octopus she bought at the aquarium's gift shop. Her heartbeat was slowly returning to baseline.

 _I'm going to name it Koro-sensei_ , she thought as she tossed and turned, hoping that her next sleep would be more restful.


	5. Gratitude

**Your voices have been heard. I will post the collection of oneshots set in the future when I think of a good title, and once I figure out which one should go first. It will be a separate story from this, because as a rule I don't edit published chapters except to correct spelling/grammar/consistency errors, and I don't want to risk confusing any readers.**

 **In response to Gigi the Hedgehog: Yes, I intentionally broke the syllables up like that.**

 **To darkprincess238, Roar1217, Gigi the Hedgehog, and Determined Dancer: Thank you for the kind reviews!**

 **If you follow Teenage Wasteland, there will be an update with a special something extra within the next few days.**

* * *

A single tear fell on Yukiko Kanzaki's pillow.

She was feeling a whirlwind of emotions right now. Joy, for having gotten a 100% on that Math test. Anger, that two guys who were interested in her refused to leave her alone after she expressed no reciprocation on her end. Self-hatred, for allowing it to still bother her that her father continued his attempts to control her life (she thought she had moved past that). And sorrow, that she didn't have a bright yellow octopus to go to for advice about any of this.

Koro-sensei's education had caused her grades in math and all other subjects to skyrocket. It was a complete 180, as she learned what study habits worked for her and how to properly divide her time between focusing on what she learned and goofing off at the arcade. It was true for the rest of her classmates as well. Last March they were the losers and rejects of Kunugigaoka Junior High, and by January their names were only spoken in whispers by A through D Classes, fearing that they would overhear and be summoned out of their hideaway.

He had also given her the strength to tell creepy men off. Well, that was a group effort by all of her classmates. After hearing about Okano kicking that gangster man in the face at the resort in Okinawa, she almost admired the girl and wished to be that strong. Combined with their sensei's lessons about asserting boundaries and what healthy relationships looked like, she soon had no issue telling Sakakibara that it wasn't going to happen between them, especially if he gave her surprise back rubs during tests.

And Koro-sensei had given her the strength to stick it to her father. Though she could have handled it more gracefully (flipping him the bird and calling him and asshole probably didn't help her case), she though he had accepted her goal of becoming a nurse for the elderly. But in the past few months, it had become apparent that it wasn't so. Now that she had lost the spring in her step, her father used that opportunity to wear her down and the passive-aggressive comments began.

And the figure of her inspiration was gone now.

More tears came. They always did when she thought about his demise. She didn't want to think of the roll she played in it. Her past may have been beautiful in some ways, but it stung.

And how would her future go?

She figured she'd have a happy and successful career as a nurse, like she had wanted for years. Spend her Saturday nights drinking at a bar with friends. Someday meet the right guy, get hitched, move to the suburbs, and have two awesome kids. Drive a new Honda Accord around and greet the new neighbors with a plate full of cookies. Vote LDP-

But what until then? How would she get through high school, through college?

When she joined the civil war over Koro-sensei's life, she picked the blue team because she still wanted to go to Koro-sensei for advice in the future. She still felt that sentiment. In clawed her heart, threatening to burst its way out in a storm of tears and pain.

Then she remembered the war itself. She took down Chiba and Okajima within the first five minutes. If she could do that, she could do anything, right?

Except survive high school, apparently.

An idea occurred to her. Kanzaki loved books (not that she read much since graduation). In her mind, there was no better way to communicate than through the written word. Maybe that was why she preferred texting over talking on the phone.

She grabbed a pen from the cup on her desk and tore an empty page from the notebook strewn aside. The black-haired girl sat down in her chair as aggressively as possible and began her letter.

 _Dear Koro-sensei,_

Where should she even begin? She had so much to thank him for, she didn't know how to begin putting it into words. Now there were teardrops on her paper. But she decided to just push on.

 _I didn't thank you enough while you were alive. You influenced me in a way that no one else has ever in my life. There isn't a day that goes by that I don't miss you, your permanent smile, the lessons you taught us. I'll carry them with me forever, but it's taking a while for me to digest the fact that you can't come back. I have to carry on and apply the knowledge you gave me, without you there to guide me._

 _So much has happened in the past two and a half months without you. I think you'd be proud of me, and of my classmates. We're all doing well at our respective schools, but still something is missing, and that is none other than you. From the depths of my heart, I wish you were here._

 _Signed,_

 _Yukiko Kanzaki_

Reading and re-reading the letter more times than she could count, she decided she was satisfied.

Putting the message in her school bag, where her family would not discover it, she lay down in bed. There were no more tears tonight.


	6. Haunting

**This installment goes a bit into the territory of the supernatural. I'll just let you all come up with your own idea of what's really happening here :) It's inspired by my roommate's experience with insomnia.**

 **Response to darkprincess238: I'm flattered you like it. There will be more about Kanzaki's fate in the coming sequel to this. And my health is… Less than stellar, but I have doctors for that.**

* * *

Yuuma Isogai shuddered. He coughed a bit, droplets of the ice cold water he had just splashed on his face fell back into the sink. He couldn't stand to look at himself in the mirror as of lately, he was beginning to look a lot like his father. So many thoughts about dead people recently.

It was his ten minute break from his last shift of the night at the café. It was a Wednesday. He'd go home at eight (two hours left), finish the last of his homework, tuck his kid siblings into bed, and go to sleep.

Well, not exactly go to sleep. It had been months since he really had a night's worth of sleep. He'd lie in bed, staring at the ceiling for hours, unable to shut his brain off for the night.

He tried to do something to fill the first few hours. Reading a book didn't tire his eyes out. Cracking the spine of that seventh-grade algebra textbook that he was saving for his brother and sister and quizzing himself on things he learned ages ago didn't bore him to sleep. Melatonin did nothing for him. Shutting down the electronics even earlier wasn't helping, it was only prolonging the amount of time he had his connection to the rest of 3-E turned off. The only comfort to him was leaving the blinds drawn so he could see the Koro-sensei constellation.

By the time it got to half past three in the morning, Isogai began to feel himself losing touch with reality. Shapes began to dance on the walls. They were shadows, illuminated by the bathroom light across the hall.

First the shadows were mere blobs, but they soon began to take shape. The 3-E building was on the far left wall. Isogai himself (Even shadow Isogai had antenna hair) and Kataoka would walk in first, when the sun was still low in the sky. Nagisa and Kayano would follow soon, distinguishable by their twin pigtails and how much shorter they were than everyone else. Okuda's braids swayed in the wind. The Terasaka gang- who else had the hulking figure- stopped to smell the flowers (maybe that actually once happened, who knows). It must have been Okajima who was being chased by several girls, carrying a camera. Karma would be the final one to come to school (Isogai thought he heard the bell ringing), it was clear who he was by the way he carried himself. After a full year seeing these people every day, you get familiar with all their subtleties.

Isogai could have sworn he saw knives fly across the room. Bullets were under his feet on the occasions he tried to get up. All shone green in the dim light.

And of course, there was Koro-sensei, with his mass of writhing tentacles. The little cap and gown. And his smile was visible in the dark. His shadow scurried across Isogai's room, threatening to wake his family up by making the paper thin walls shake.

Every time that happened, without fail, Isogai would sit up. It wasn't even something he actively thought to do, it was just an instinct, as if he couldn't not do it. And he'd say… something, to who he thought was Koro-sensei. But he never was conscious of it. He couldn't stop his mouth from opening, couldn't stop the words from coming out. It was like he was deaf for just a minute.

Was he imagining it? He thought he felt a soft squishy tentacle on his head. No pressure at all, as if it were floating. He thought he saw the outline of his favorite teacher, and was flooded by a sense of warmth and acceptance.

Then he blinked, and the sunlight bled in through the windows and the birds were chirping.

Those were the good nights.

On the bad ones, he was visited by no one. He was only haunted by his own thoughts.

 _Did we do the right thing?_

The walls in his old dilapidated house creaked.

 _It was our assignment, sure, but couldn't we just give up and take the 'F'?_

A thunderstorm roared outside his window.

 _Koro-sensei, aren't you there?_

Some animal scurried across the roof.

 _Can I see you just one last time?_

The incomprehensible noise of his alarm stopped those thoughts dead in their tracks.

 _Time for another day of the same old-_

"Isogai? Isogai!?" He found himself being shaken by his boss, who seemed to be in a panic.

"Mr. Satou? I'm fine, I don't know what you're-"

"You were just passed in the sink."

It finally registered to the former class president that he was indeed leaning up against the bathroom sink. He had pains in his scalp, maybe he had hit his head on the nozzle.

"I was? Haha, I just didn't get any sleep last night." He hoped to be able to brush it off.

Mr. Satou was unimpressed. "Are you sick? Do you want to take the night off?"

Isogai was tempted to say yes for a sweet moment, but then remembered his sister's face when she came home from school crying because a classmate had bullied her about her old clothes.

"No, I'm fine."

 _I have to be strong. I can't walk out on an assignment._


	7. Help

**Thanks to darkprincess238, TheRoseShadow21, Determined Dancer for the regular reviews. They are awesome.**

 **Teenage Wasteland will be getting an update early next week. I've had a rough time coming back home, see my profile for a full AN.**

 **Also, if any of you are going to AnimeNext in Atlantic City this weekend, I will be cosplaying Kayano on Saturday. I'll be easy to miss because I'm Kayano-sized, but feel free to say hi.**

* * *

Justice "Masayoshi" Kimura stirred, and took a look at his phone. _6:09 pm, Friday, July 15th_. His eyes involuntarily closed, but he was still weary of the people around him. He was an assassin, after all.

As much of an assassin as he was, he couldn't help falling asleep on the train. Of course. He had joined the track team, and they ran him ragged. It didn't help that he had absolutely no motivation. He joined the team thinking it might give him motivation, but it just wasn't the same without a yellow octopus cheering with pom-poms and a megaphone. Wasn't Koro-sensei ever concerned that that thing would catch the attention of the main campus? Apparently not, and apparently it never did.

Sure, Kimura did well in school. It was a struggle to do his schoolwork, but he kept telling himself it was what Koro-sensei would have wanted him to do. Everything else, he just gave up on. What was the point of talking to his family? They didn't have much to say about the whole incident. His father went on and on about how rough that night was **on him**. How he and every police officer in the town were on duty. How he didn't have a break in twelve hours, how the shift lasted 'til six am. _Me, me, me_ , that was all he ever talked about. And his mother was similarly self-centered, concerned more with how much money the town lost and how "Considering I'm payed with tax dollars, I better get a raise". Not once did they ask Kimura how he felt, or who this Koro-sensei guy really was.

Kimura didn't even bother talking to his brother, Brave. He was just 11. He was busy with preparing for junior high entrance exams (his dreams of attending Kunugigaoka were crushed after Kimura was dropped into E Class, because "why would they do that to my awesome bro?"), no need to bother him with his brother's mental health issues. He was too young to get it anyway. Best to let him stay up 'til three am with his nose in that damn algebra textbook. Kimura knew what it was like to be there, and not much persuades you otherwise.

No, the only people who would understand his plight were the twenty-seven other people (er, twenty-six other people plus one AI) who went through the same thing. The Line chat exploded from time to time, but they all seemed to avoid talking about the core of their issues. One time Kataoka offered to talk to Yada about how she ignored the chat for a few weeks, and Yada responded that she wanted to talk, but they must have switched to a private chat, because he never heard any more of it. Of course, she had a right to privacy if that's what she wanted, and she and Kataoka were always close. But no one, not even Isogai, was sharing their feelings with the group. It was all posts about their new schools and whatever manga Fuwa was obsessed with now. Sometimes extracurricular activities were a topic of discussion.

Speaking of which, he had given up on those too, until very recently. Without E Class there to support and join him, why even bother? He didn't know any of these people on the team. They seemed nice enough, but they weren't Kurahashi or Mimura or Sugaya. And the coach was no Mr. Kurasuma. But Kimura forced himself to go every single Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Maybe if he faked it enough, his passion for the team would eventually become real. Fake it 'til you make it, that was his parent's motto whenever they went through a rough patch in their life. It got the family through some tough times, not that they were really happy.

 _No, no. Don't give into that thought._ Kimura was barely conscious as his mind ran off at a kilometer a minute. He tried to stop these thoughts, but he was only successful sometimes. His mind went back to the team as he drifted back into half-sleep, the memory of today's practice being his lullaby.

He was one of the fastest runners. That was nice, he guessed. The rest of the team seemed astonished by him and his abilities. They did ask where he went to junior high, and he had dodged the question. He didn't want to tell them about Koro-sensei or the Assassination Classroom. They weren't ready to know. They wouldn't get it. He didn't have an issue with any of them, but he felt like some invisible barrier was closing him off from developing relationships with other people.

 _Maybe I should call a therapist_ , Kimura covered his mouth as he yawned. He didn't know anyone else who visited one. Was that okay? Did that make him bad or-

The next train stop jolted him awake. The announcement blared in his ears. _We are now making a brief stop at Kunugigaoka Station. Please make gather all of your belongings before you leave. The next stop will be Shinjuku Station._

Kimura grabbed his bag and headed home. It would be a twenty-minute walk after a two hour practice that drained his energy, but it wasn't anything he couldn't handle. Nothing compared to the experience they had on the mountain on March 12th.

He spent the walk home pondering what he planned on posting in the group chat. It had been four months since he had seen the entire class. Maybe they were just reluctant, maybe that's why nobody had posted what he was thinking of right now. Or maybe there was some reason he was missing?

Kimura was now in his room (avoiding his family). He had been staring at the group chat for the past twenty minutes. Should he post it? Did he have the right?

 _Eh. Might as well be that guy_ , he thought as he hit send and locked his phone, waiting on responses from his old friends.

 **Justice Kimura: How would everyone feel about having a reunion this summer break? We haven't cleaned up the old schoolhouse in months.**

His phone blew up with responses.

 **Kaede Kayano: Sure! :) I think a Sunday would be good, since we all have off of school.**

 **Kotarou Takebayashi: I was actually just thinking of that.**

 **Hinata Okano: Okay. We should come up with a list of what we need to bring.**

 **Sumire Hara: I'll bring the food.**

 **Hinano Kurahashi: I have some gardening supplies to spare!**

 **Yuuma Isogai: Okay. I'm looking over the calandar right now. Does anyone have any obligations in August?**

 _Sigh._ So it went over well. Relief washed over him like a wave. He sunk into his bed, not even feeling exhausted anymore.

He muted his phone, because now there was homework to do. But he stared at that for another twenty minutes.

 _One other thing to do, one I almost pushed away..._

He picked up his phone, his hand shaking so much he almost dropped it. As the phone buzzed with messages from Line, he googled 'therapists in Kunugigaoka'.

He scrolled through the options. One seemed perfect. She specialized in teens who endured traumatic events.

The call button was there, mere centimeters beneath his finger. His heart was pounding. Her office would only be open for another fifteen minutes.

One. Two. Three. Press the button.


	8. Ambition

**This chapter is deeply personal to me.**

 **Thanks for all reviews, I'm pleased to see that the last chapter went over so well, because I was debating when to introduce that particular detail (about the therapy).**

 **Please enjoy and review.**

* * *

 _Drip._

Nagisa stood in front of the faucet at the bathroom sink. It felt like hours that he had been in the bathroom. He was just washing his hair. Now that it was short, it should take too long to wash, right? But he just felt _dirty_ today. Like no matter how much he scrubbed, he couldn't get clean.

He would turn sixteen tomorrow. Sixteen. All of those protagonists from anime Fuwa talked about endlessly, that was the age they were (or younger)! Those silly American teen movies were loaded with sixteen-year-old heroes who saved their neighborhood from the Devil by playing baseball with their sidekick who had snappy one-liners.

What had Nagisa done, in his sixteen years?

In some ways, more than most kids his age. He defeated a Mach 20 supercreature, figured out what he wanted to do with his life, and (potentially?) saved the world from eradication. Most sixteen-year-olds, in Japan or any other country, had nothing like that to boast.

But in some ways, he had done much less. He hadn't grown since the seventh grade. The other day, when Karma was angry with him for eating the last of the strawberries in his fridge, he quipped with "Have you even gone through puberty yet?" Nagisa laughed, but inside it stung. He was the shortest kid in his class, still rail thin and baby-faced. And he didn't know how to balance a checkbook (so it was a good thing he didn't accept the reward money for killing Koro-sensei).

Other sixteen-year-olds gave their crushes love letters and joined sports teams and were independent from their families. Gakushuu Asano was giving Karma a run for his money for Most Impressive Fifteen-Year-Old in Kunugigaoka. Kayano was a full year younger than him and a nationally renown actress, some say one of the best in the world (though like him, she still longed for her growth spurt). Isogai was blowing everyone away with how perfect he was.

And here Nagisa was, on the eve of his sixteenth birthday, his biggest concern was if Sugino had seen his text yet.

Hell, Bitch-sensei made her first kill at twelve. Karasuma probably had an eight-pack and bulging muscles by his age. And the Principal… Definitely had every achievement possible. And then there was Koro-sensei.

From what Nagisa could piece together, he was already an established assassin by sixteen. Already in the field of what he wanted to do with his life. He was probably smart, smarter than Nagisa or even Karma or Isogai. But not much else was known. It was a bit pointless to speculate, not that Nagisa could help it.

And Koro-sensei, at whatever age he was in March, had become the World's Best Teacher. Would Nagisa even begin to compare, when he was Koro-sensei's age and following in his footsteps? Er, tentacle-steps?

 _No._ Definitely not. No matter how much he tried. Nagisa didn't move at Mach 20, nor did he have the ability to memorize every textbook in all of Japan. If his students were attacked, he couldn't block them from a weapon, it would just kill him and then there'd be no one to protect the students. He couldn't 'clone' himself to tutor every student at once, and he couldn't actually fly them to Africa to teach them about poverty in Africa. He couldn't change the color of his face to red to show that the answers they gave were correct. Koro-sensei even brought his student _back from the dead._ How could Nagisa possibly compare with that!?

 _No use beating myself up over it,_ Nagisa tried to tell himself as he washed his hair again in the sink (it still looked wrong). But those thoughts, try as he might, would not go away.

 _But, there are things you could do._

Nagisa knew that voice. Koro-sensei. So he could still talk to him from the grave. Nagisa had heard about some people talking to dead friends and relatives, mostly in dreams, but it had never happened to him.

The bluenette was overwhelmed with a sense of comfort. Of course Koro-sensei was still watching them, giving them guidance. _What isn't Koro-sensei capable of?_

Nagisa combed out his blue hair. It was so much easier to manage now that it was short. _Does that mean you're still here too, Yukimura-sensei?_

He felt a hand on his shoulder, the way Yukimura-sensei always used to comfort her students when they were getting agitated about test scores.

 _At least they're happy together in the afterlife, I think._

But yes, Koro-sensei was right, as always. There were lessons he'd learned from Koro-sensei, that he was capable of applying.

He could make tests tailored to each of their personal strengths and weaknesses. He could try to apply their interests to the subjects they were struggling in (that's how Takebayashi passed statistics). He could use the classroom to teach them moral and life lessons, those were as important as academics.

And he could teach them to treat life like an assassination. Sneak up on your target, be well-prepared, and strike. And always have a backup plan.

Maybe someday he'd even tell his students to kill him, and use that as motivation. It sounded silly now, but it worked in his experience.

Nagisa smiled for the first time in what must have been months. He turned back to his phone to add to the group chat.

 **Nagisa Shiota: So have we picked out a date for this reunion yet?**

 **Megu Kataoka: I was thinking August 6th.**

 **Nagisa Shiota: Okay. I'll make sure not to schedule any tutoring sessions with Sakura that day.**

 **Tomohito Sugino: Still tutoring her? You're already making Koro-sensei proud.**

 _I like to think I am._ Nagisa began to walk into the kitchen to finish his homework. _I'll figure it all out, how to handle my future students. I learned from the best._

And how many sixteen-year-olds have could say _that_ with sincerity?


	9. Insecurity

**I suppose you could read this chapter as shippy if you want, but that's not how I intended it to come across. Takebayashi is a seriously underappreciated character (why did Lerche cut his arc?), I just can't ship him with Okuda…**

 **I've finished my outline for this fic, it will have 25 chapters in total. Of course, that is subject to change.  
**

 **Thanks for all reviews, favorites, and follows. Please review again and enjoy.**

* * *

Summertime. Most high-schoolers were taking their vacations now. Maybe they went to the beach with their families or played sports or did summer reading challenges. Certainly a few were at the mall today, or in the park. But Koutaro Takebayashi could do none of those things. He spent the summer break in his school's chemistry lab, doing advanced research. The thick smell of chemicals in a hot lab with no AC was just something he had gotten used to. It didn't even bother him anymore.

Okuda was on the other side of the room, watching the chemical reaction of the two fluids she was mixing. Takebayashi didn't remember the names of them. She made a face Takebayashi never saw on her before. Somewhere between anticipation and frustration. And relief when the concoction began to bubble up.

She didn't go to his school. She was sent here from Oku Tokyo on a summer program. Some combined effort between the top two science/engineering high schools in Tokyo to develop something-or-another for medicine for Alzheimer's, MS, Lupus, thyroid disease… As if he was smart enough to figure _that_ out.

They only picked two students to do this, of course Lady Luck would have it that he and Okuda were reunited again. Well, not Lady Luck. Takebayashi never believed in luck. The winners were chosen by the heads of the chemistry department. Apparently, that meant that they were standout students. Takebayashi couldn't speak for Okuda, but he certainly didn't feel like he was. If the ghost of Koro-sensei could read minds, he certainly wouldn't like that thought.

 _What are we even doing here?_ Ah, yes, research for school, he reminded himself.

They were keeping the RH-slither blood a secret, developing it between the two of them whenever they got the time to meet privately. That wasn't too often anymore, the last time they met to do that was late June. They invited Kurahashi to join, but she was only interested in animal biology. They invited Karma, jack of all trades, but he rejected the invitation. "Koro-sensei gave the info to _you two_ , this is not my place," was all he said. Okuda told Takebayashi not to push it any further.

Returning to work, Takebayashi grabbed the beaker and moved towards the front of the laboratory. It caught his attention that his name was on the top of his lab report. He turned away from it, hiding his face in shame. When that wasn't enough, he flipped the paper over so it wouldn't be such an eyesore.

Koutaro… It was a common enough name, sure. But why did he share his name with that bastard, Koutaro Yanagisawa? It was because of Shiro that Koro-sensei died and that Kayano almost died. It was because of him that they suffered so much. Takebayashi had never hated anyone in his life as much as Shiro, and he was sure his classmates shared that opinion.

Takebayashi smacked his head to rid himself of those nasty memories. In the end, Shiro and the Faux-Shinigami were not successful in their true goals. Koro-sensei died, but he did so with a smile on his face, in the way that he wanted, by the people whom he wanted to be his assassins. And Shiro and the Faux-shinigami's attempts on his classmates' lives were equally unsuccessful, as Koro-sensei protected them. Takebayashi kept reminding himself of those facts every time he thought of Koro-sensei's death, and it brought a little smile to his face.

"Takebayashi? What are you smiling about?" Okuda's protective goggles were splashed with purple whatever-the-hell-that-liquid-was.

"I'm sure you can guess."

Okuda pushed her braid behind her ear. Her social and communication skills were still not the best, but she could understand what Takebayshi was getting at. They were on the same wavelength. "Koro-sensei?"

"Yes. Do you ever think he's watching us, right now?"

Okuda returned to her stuttering, blushing junior high self whenever Koro-sensei was brought up.

Okuda wouldn't tell him- she wouldn't tell _anybody_ \- but somehow her classmates knew she was a former member of the assassination classroom. She didn't know how, because she sure as hell didn't tell any of them. But the specifics of that really didn't matter, because she was bombarded with questions on a daily basis. 'What was that Koro-sensei guy like', 'What was it like to kill someone', and 'Why didn't you keep all that reward money' were the top three most common ones. She always refused to answer. It was none of their damn business, any of that. When she finally exploded at one of them and yelled _Knock it off, I'm not answering that!,_ they seemed to get the message. No one expected such a seemingly sweet girl to pull that out.

But alas, she still had to answer Takebayashi. "Yes."

"Hm." A beat. "So do I."

Hours passed and the sun fell in the sky before they felt the need to say anything unrelated to their research.

"You've seen the Koro-sensei constellation?" He didn't even take his eyes off of his collection of vials and pipettes.

"Who hasn't?" Okuda had her eyes on the clock, it chimed 17:00. It was now time to go home.

They cleaned up and hung up their lab coats, stopped by the chemistry department and said goodnight to their supervisors (who had left them to talk about who-knows-what in the teachers' lounge), and walked home.

They left the building, careful to grab their shoes on the way out (the 'absent-minded professor' Okuda sometimes forgot hers and walked halfway home in school shoes, meaning she had to walk all the way back and take another 30 minutes getting home).

"Maybe it will be out tonight." Okuda completed the thought that she began while in the lab.

"I hope so."

They were both thinking of the reunion that would be soon. Just a week, and then they would see all of their friends in the same place. Sure, Okuda had seen Kayano and Kanzaki and Karma quite a few times (the last one more than a few), and Nagisa usually accompanied them. But she missed Hazama and Nakamura and Okano and Yada. And Sugino. And.. Well, just about everybody.

Takebayshi was waiting to share news of that new maid café that had opened up in Shinjuku. Terasaka would love it. And he certainly missed Bitch-sensei and her silly banter with himself and Maehara, maybe she'd be at the reunion too. He could see Ritsu's face anytime he wanted (sometimes he talked to her just to assuage his loneliness), but seeing her laughing and chatting with everyone else was just something different, a feeling he couldn't recreate when he talked to her alone.

It felt like years since he saw them all together.

Takebayashi asked his lab partner. He knew she was thinking about the same thing. "Do you still talk to everyone?"

"Just a few of them. I'm excited for the reunion."

"Yeah, maybe we'll have something to show off." He laughed awkwardly.

Okuda stepped on a landmine, and regretted it instantaneously. "Do you?"

"No." Much to his embarrassment, the geeky guy began to cry. It was just a slight dribble that leaked out of the corners of this eyes, a bit like when you forget to turn the faucet off completely.

"Takebayashi-"

"I wish I'd taken the chance to get to know them better. I wish I'd had the courage to contact any of them after graduation." The tears wouldn't stop. They just flowed and flowed. "But who would want to talk to me?"

"I do." A year ago, Okuda would have never thought she would be the calm one compared to anybody, but a year in such a classroom changes you.

"Well, you're special. Most people look at me and-"

"TAKEBAYASHI!"

He looked as if Nagisa had just used the clap stunner on him.

"Don't cry." Okuda pulled her handkerchief out of her pocket and wiped the tears away. "And definitely don't be hard on yourself. Koro-sensei wouldn't want us to do that."

Takebayashi agreed, and once again thought of that smiling yellow face. That thought ended the wellspring of tears that erupted from his eyes, like a cork.

"You're right. He wouldn't."


	10. Bond

**So… It's been two months. If you haven't been reading the ANs on** ** _Teenage Wasteland_** **, it's because this fancy new computer turned out to be a piece of crap that will not properly function no matter what I do and it needs to be taken out back and shot like Old Yeller. Sigh.**

 **Anyway. So I'm going to speed up the update rate on this, hopefully we'll have an update every two weeks. I want to finish this by graduation (ha-ha, sound familiar?) and I do find this much easier to write than anything else I'm working on right now.**

 **Response to Guest: I shall. Not for quite a few chapters, but I will come around to Karma eventually.**

 **Thank you all for your support. Please enjoy and review again.**

* * *

The mountain was exactly as they left it. Well, aside from the dust that collected on the desks, and the crows that spied on Kataoka as she walked up the mountain, not at all phased by the walk she used to take on a daily basis. _I've never seen those here. Are they new…?_ Mr. Crow flew away before she could even finish the thought. And just like that, it was no longer worth the energy to follow.

Kataoka was the first to arrive for their little reunion. Of course she was. After paying her respects to her old teachers, she sat on the grass. She pulled out a bunch of flowers that she picked on the way up the mountain. She remembered planting them towards the end of last year ( _The end of Koro-sensei's life_ ). Tulips. They didn't even need to be watered with all of the rain. The grass was nice and green, prefect for sitting on. That was exactly what Kataoka did.

Exactly one year ago today, they were on the boat to Okinawa. And not too long after ( _Was it this day or tomorrow?_ Kataoka was ashamed that she didn't remember) Takaoka showed up and tried to kill them all. That bastard ( _What even happened to him?_ ).

What would they do in March, when it was exactly one year from Koro-sensei's death? What about in five years, would they brag of their grades in college? In ten years they might not all be here due to work schedules that may not be the most flexible. In twenty years, maybe they'd have children in tow. And in fifty years when they were all old people? Would they tease each other for their wrinkles and struggles getting out of a chair?

 _No._ She didn't want to think about that. _We're going to be sixteen forever. Me, Okano, Okuda, Mimura, Sugino…_ She rattled off the names of all of her classmates, in the order of how recently they had posted in the groupchat. A twig snapped nearby, bringing her back into 'assassin' mode.

It was Hara and Fuwa. She never expected those two to be early for anything, but what bothered her was that they came together. It bothered her more than it should have. They had a friendship that made her jealous. She wanted to be that close to someone, rather than being put on a pedestal and admired by her classmates, as if she was untouchable. She was the Ikemegu of Kunugigoka, and now she was the Ikemegu of Nagatacho High.

They both brought bouquets. They didn't look all that much like her's, they were clearly brought from a florist ( _Now I'm thinking of the False God of Death, dammit dammit dammit!_ ), but they had the same idea that she did.

"Hello, Megu." Fuwa had lost quite a bit of weight, which was not a good thing for a girl of her size. It also looked like she dyed her hair black.

"Hello." She replied coolly, though her heart ached to hug everyone she graduated with.

"I made some onigiri." Hara plopped down on the grass. She on the other hand was still plump and looked very much the same. Kataoka was comforted by Hara's consistency, but tried her hardest not to judge how Fuwa seemed to reinvent herself.

"Cool".

Nagisa, Karma, and Kayano were the next to arrive. They too, had bouquets. And they too came together. "We're trying to spend more time with each other", Kayano giggled ( _Akari Yukimura, Haruna Mase,_ those names flew through Kataoka's head but she dare not call her delicate old classmate by them). Karma and Nagisa just nodded.

Those words were razors to Kataoka's wounded heart ( _Where was that quote from again? Hazama said it once_ ). She barely saw her old friends anymore… She'd give the Ikemegu Fanclub of Nagatacho for spending time with them again.

Okuda came in with Kanzaki. Did they bond recently? Kataoka sure hoped so. Okuda needed the connection to 3-E, Kataoka feared that she would fall away from them due to her shyness. _But some things just bond you to people permanently, and being a part of the Assassination Classroom is just one of those things, I think._ And everyone would have agreed with her, if they could read minds.

"Why did we all bring flowers?" Maehara threw his roses in the garden, the place where Koro-sensei dug up the tulips all those a year before.

Isogai gently placed his down, contrary to his good friend. "Beats me. Maybe Koro-sensei is speaking to us?"

"And maybe a complete stranger will finally be the one to date Okajima." Terasaka hid his flowers behind his back, not wanting anyone to see them. "There's a lot of maybes in life."

Kataoka tried to read Terasaka, but she didn't have Nagisa's level of talent when it came to that. Terasaka never really believed in ghosts, or anything supernatural, but he experienced a lot of anomalies in the past year and a half.

"Hey!" Okajima threw down his own bouquet. "I'll have you know that I could have given this to a girl on the way over, but I decided to save it for Koro-sensei!"

"And my sister." Kayano scolded him, flowers in her hair. _How did those get there? I never saw her put those in._

"Oh! Yep, your sister too. She had one impressive set of knockers." The class pervert drooled.

"Shut up, Okajima." Karma snapped, clearly not in the mood to deal with this. It was one of the rare occasions that Kataoka agreed with him. None of this was appropriate today. Okajima just whimpered.

Everyone arrived quickly, whether it be unceremoniously or extravagantly. Yada, Kurahashi, and Hayami just seemed to materialize there. Kataoka didn't hear Chiba say a word, though she saw him a few times and he even waved to her. Nakamura snuck up on Terasaka and stuck a lizard down his shirt, it didn't earn the most favorable reaction from him. But everyone else laughed, and Karma high-fived her.

 _Why can't I laugh right now, even with them?_

"So how about that Koro-sensei constellation?" Kimura was That Guy to finally bring it up.

"Yeah, can we talk about that a little more?" Kataoka now saw that it was Okano who was weaving flowers into Kayano's hair.

Ritsu appeared on Kataoka's phone, she jumped out of shock.

"Oh! Didn't mean to scare you there, Megu! Anyway, I found this app that will tell you the names of all of the stars! It's called…"

Kataoka stopped listening as they all pulled their phones out to look at it. The constellation was coming out again. Kataoka took a picture of it, when she saw the picture it looked like it winked at her.

* * *

Sometimes it felt like there weren't seasons anymore. Why pay attention to those, when all you can feel is the memory of the cold of that night ( _and memory is just as good as the real thing_ )? But summer was too difficult to ignore today. The blaring heat reminded them of that.

They had just gotten here, but it already looked like time to go. Takebayashi had to study for more exams ( _He'll be a great doctor_ ). Hazama's mom was on the phone, demanding that she "Come back at once!" Nakamura seemed nervous, and kept saying she had to go soon.

"Why, got a date?" Sugaya smirked.

"Let's just say that." She snapped uncharacteristically.

 _I'm not the only one whose personality is changing…_

"Kataoka? Isogai? I think you should do the honors." Karma smiled, for once it wasn't an evil grin. He had no pranks planned today. "It seems like we have to go. Any announcements?"

Isogai began to stand up, but Kataoka was quicker. _I've barely spoken to anyone today, so it's time…_

"Well, let's do this again sometime." Kataoka raised her voice and spoke to her old classmates, it felt like the first time ever. But the first time she ever spoke to them she was self-assured, spoke loudly and clearly, and she could hear her voice reverberating in her brain. This time her heart pounded. Her palms were sweaty.

She couldn't see it, but to her classmates, this was exactly like the first time she addressed them as a whole. Her voice was familiar and comforting to them, sharp but not cold, and it brought them back to the days they spent on this mountain. They only relieved those moments in their dreams anymore, but now it was as if they were there, as if it were a year ago.

Then Kataoka said the one word that assassinated their hearts, metaphorically.

"Koro-sensei…"

It was too much for them. So once again, it must have been the hundredth ( _maybe thousandth?_ ) time, tears flowed freely. It wasn't like when Koro-sensei died, and they all broke out into tears at once. It was a chain reaction, one after the other. No one knew who started, but it was probably one of the emotional ones like Kayano or Okuda. But it was clear than the last was Terasaka, because no one ever forgot how he wailed with despair.

Kataoka, who had joined in at some point, continued the waterworks, found herself enveloped in a warm hug by Okano. Yada stood up and gave her a reluctant stare, it seemed like she wanted to join. Kataoka beckoned her, and she came over and hugged her too.

"We love you, Kataoka. We all love you." Okano cried. ( _And I know she means it_ ). This was all that Kataoka wanted. To be in their presence again. To pretend this will never end. But in a way, Kataoka realized, it never would. They were bound forever by bloodlust, bound forever by learning, bound together by an experience that no one would ever have imagined or no one would ever get over, not even when they were falling apart and close to death.

"Yes. I think March 13th is good." Koro-sensei's birthday. Only nods and grunts of agreement to that.

With that, everyone just sort of left.

The Yada-Kurahashi-Hayami trio all left exactly as they came in. The red-green-blue trio left together as well, now with the addition of Sugino. Maehara patted Isogai's back, as he was still crying. Kanzaki walked alone. The Mimura and Sugaya walked with their heads down.

Now it was only Kataoka on the mountain. Not even the birds chirped, not even the wind blew. The sunset was in her eyes, but she didn't mind any of that today.

"I know you'll keep watching us, everywhere we go." She cast another glace at the schoolhouse, knowing that it might be a while before she came back.

Okay. Breathe.

Now Kataoka walked home, and pretended it was like any day they were all dismissed from the assassination classroom.

* * *

 **If you haven't seen my ANs on** ** _Teenage Wasteland_** **, there will be more second-genners in the upcoming sequel to this. It will also be maximum angst, so prepare thyself. Not sure when it will be out, considering the fact that I've already got three ongoing fics, two waiting to be published, and a few oneshots. Anyway, I hope all you are looking forward to that as much as I am.**


	11. Fleeting

**Don't expect me to be very active in November… I've got 30 pages worth of academic papers, all due in late November or early December. Yep, you read that right. Don't expect much in December either. Because, y'know, finals.**

 **Thanks for all the reviews, favs, and follows.**

* * *

It was dusk already. That was something Tomohito Sugino didn't notice until just now. The only thing he was focusing on was throwing the baseball, and the way it _clang_ 'd when it bounced off of the chain link fence.

Kenji Yamamura, a good friend he had made at his high school, had offered to do this with him after school, but Sugino smiled and made some excuse about how he need to be alone. He didn't even remember what the excuse was, actually. It probably wasn't a good one.

So here the Baseball Geek himself was, in the middle of the woods, practicing pitching. That was his weak point when it came to baseball. He certainly enjoyed it the least. But the reason he was doing that right now wasn't out of a goal of improvement. Nope. He just wanted the satisfaction of throwing that ball against the fence. That noise it made when it bounced, and when it hit the ground. It distracted him from his thoughts.

It was early September, and summer was already a distant memory. Well, except for the reunion, which involved a lot of tears and concluded with Sugino reconnecting with the red-blue-green trio. That was a memory still fresh in his mind, one that made him smile every time it popped up in his thoughts (which were still very focused on 3-E).

The exact date was September 13th. Sugino was very aware of that. He tried to forget about it, but when the memories surfaced again, he lost his grip on the ball, directing it downwards. It landed in the dirt this time. The sound it made was very different.

 _Puff._

Six months. 184 days. 4,411 hours (It was only 7:37 pm right now). 264,660 minutes. 15,879,600 seconds.

That was how much time had passed since the assassination.

His brain did the calculations involuntarily. But to Sugino, it was strange when you broke it down into increments like that. When he looked back, it all just seemed like one _swoosh_ , as if it were an uninterrupted flow and then he ended up right here and now.

But in reality, various events broke the days into staccato. He started his new school, he tried out for the baseball team, they had practice every day, he had exams.

And looking forward? He was meeting up with Nagisa and Karma next weekend to have a movie night (watching the worst movies of all time, of course). The next big game was on October 2nd, jsut a few weeks away. His family was taking a vacation to Disney World for winter break, and while Sugino had planned to spend Christmas wooing Kanzaki he certainly wasn't upset when that news was broken to himself and his nine-year-old brother shortly after graduation. Life would go on, that was what Koro-sensei would have wanted anyway.

Some people live life by chaining together big events, counting down the days until it or days past it. Nagisa kept that notebook detailing how many months until their deadline to kill Koro-sensei. Those signs in the department stores counted down the days until next Christmas the moment it turned December 26th. When Kataoka broke into tears at their reunion, she sobbed out laments about how it was only a year ago that this would have been a fun get together and not something that erupted into sorrow.

Chaining those events together like rosary beads and making them the standout points of your life while everything else is static… It wasn't how Sugino ever did view things. What makes his birthday, August 23rd, any different than the day before, or the day after?

And now, it was no different. Time doesn't stop so you can celebrate, or take a breather, or hide in your room and skip school to spend the day feeling sorry for yourself.

That's not to say Sugino didn't grieve. He grieved indeed, but in his own way.

Truthfully, he liked to indulge himself by imagining that Koro-sensei was still there. Koro-sensei still tutored him in his kitchen after school, Sugino even left out a few cookies for him. Koro-sensei called Sugino to the mountain every time he stood unmoving on the train stopped at Kunugigaoka station ( _I'm sorry Koro-sensei, but I have to go to my new school now_ ). The only important day was Koro-sensei's birthday, which he had to go the extra mile to make special. That was the only way he could handle it without putting his life on pause.

And if Sugino felt lonely walking home after a long practice, he imagined Koro-sensei padding alongside him, the _squish squish_ of each tentacle making contact with the ground put a smile on the teen's face. Koro-sensei went on about form and pitch, and how he could contact Arata-sama and get his opinion on Sugino's improvement. Sugino would jump out of joy, and they would both laugh until they cried.

 _Squish._

The sound cut through Sugino's thoughts like a knife (but not an anti-sensei knife, not anything that could harm his beloved sensei). He didn't know if he imagined it, if he was interpreting a completely different sound as that, or if Koro-sensei himself was actually there.

Tears were spilling out of Sugino's eyes. Yes, this was a very common occurrence too, often in the evenings when he was up in his room "trying to get to sleep". He usually didn't notice until his pillow or pajamas were soaked, and then he imagined Koro-sensei's numerous tentacles holding many tissues and wiping the tears away.

When he heard no more squishes after a few minutes, Sugino took that as a sign that it was time to go home. Gathering up all 12 of the baseballs he was "practicing" with, he dumped them in his duffel bag and began the walk to the train station.

Sugino just thought of something. Kimura was talking about meeting with a therapist, right? He said something about it during the reunion last month.

Sugino whipped his phone out and direct-messaged the classmate he had very little to do with beyond that one disastrous baseball game that ended quickly (because, don't let Kimura know, he was _really_ bad at it).

 **Hey, what was the name of the therapist you've been seeing?**

* * *

 **Ehh… Not sure how this one came out. It seems kind of OOC, and badly written at that. Please let me know how I did in the reviews. I'll rewrite it if it's bad.  
**

 **AN: The bit about ''chaining events together like rosary beads" is inspired by how my best friend always has countdowns on her phone to big events we are looking forward to (conventions, concerts, vacations we take together).**


	12. Cold

**This was supposed to be posted on Friday (November 9th) for Kayano's birthday, but stuff happened. Speaking of Kayano, her chapter will be coming up soon, as well as Karma's.**

 **But anyway, here's Fuwa.**

 **Thanks for all views and reviews. Please enjoy and review again.**

 **TW: You may not want to read this chapter if you have an eating disorder or are recovered from one.**

* * *

Fuwa sat in her room. Second floor of the building, deadass silent. Her parents were never here in their apartment on Sundays, Sunday was the most popular day for the manga store they ran. That store was right below her. When Fuwa closed the pages of the manga she was reading, she could hear the footsteps downstairs, hear her parents laughing with their customers. She told them this morning that she was sick and couldn't be helping them this time. They kissed the top of her head and told her to drink some tea.

When she was a child, she'd help out, running from shelf to shelf, trying to figure out where _Dragon Ball Z_ went in relation to _Dragon Ball GT_ and standing on stepstools to reach copies of _Crayon Shin-chan_. One time that last feat went horribly wrong, and she accidentally pulled out too many, the manga rained down on her and bopped her on the head. Before the entire shelf fell on her, someone emerged from behind and pushed her out of the way.

"Hey," The other girl smiled. "I'm looking for something called _Gakuen Babysitters_."

That was the day Fuwa met Hara Sumire. Four years ago today, on September 25th, 2012. It seemed like forty years ago, but still she smiled at the memory. Then her smile was driven away when she was hit by a draft that felt more like a blizzard to her. She wrapped herself up in her blanket like a burrito.

Fuwa always hated September. It was some bastard between summer and Halloween Month (which had always been her favorite, but maybe not this year). But now, she hated it for other reasons. But this time around, she hated it because she was sure that no one else was shivering and needed a blanket on September 25th. Well, except researchers in Antarctica.

Hmm. Were there any manga about Antarctica? Fuwa couldn't think of any. Maybe she'd write it.

The girl went back to the manga she was reading. She had read all of the manga that was in that store, but she was one to re-read things. Today it was the first volume of _Boruto_. But no matter how much she tried to redirect her thoughts to anything else, they always came back to the assassination classroom. Maybe that would be them one day. Since the assassination classroom was now retired, maybe their kids would continue their legacy.

 _But even if that were the case, it won't be for a long time…_

Sigh. The manga fell down on her ribs, the corners sharp against the bruise she got pulling from herself up off the bed. Ouch. Another thing to hide.

She traced her finger across her ribs, cringing at the bruise. Fuwa was sure people could see every one of her ribs, perhaps even count them, through her shirt. Or maybe she was just lost in her shirt, it hung over her frame like a bag. Or maybe they saw and didn't think it was that big of a deal.

Or maybe they didn't notice her at all. She was the one falling behind in a puff after running only a few steps on the track field. She was the one who skipped lunch, because she couldn't keep anything down. Not that she didn't want to eat, she just couldn't bring herself to eat anything. It was yet another thing on a list of many things to do, and it took low priority.

And here she was now curled up in her bed at 10 am on a Sunday, having had only a handful of rice in the past 24 hours and feeling no need to get out of bed, even to make food. That expended too much effort.

She coughed due to the dust she unintentionally kicked up while plopping down the manga on her bedside. She shivered and pulled the blanket around her. Why did she pack away her winter pajamas?

She didn't think she'd be going back to that manga today, or any of them. Though this was one of those rare Sundays that she had nothing to do for tomorrow, Fuwa had no desire to move a muscle. She didn't want to do _anything_. The last event she had looked forward to was the reunion with her old classmates, and the next event she was looking forward to was the reunion with them in March.

 _Ugh. Koro-sensei taught us better._ Fuwa knew that. He was probably looking down at her from Heaven, shaking his head. Yukimura-sensei probably mirrored him, both with their halos glowing a little less because of the disappointment. But it didn't change how she felt, which was another thing she knew she should feel bad about.

Hopefully this wouldn't be a lifelong thing. Hopefully this would be over in a few months.

Fuwa's phone buzzed, sending vibrations through the arm that was holding it. It may be a lot of effort to even not drop it on her belly, but the possibility of it being someone she wanted to talk to made her do so. So she did, and she was pleased to see what was on the screen.

 **New message from Sumire Hara:**

 **Would you maybe like to spend some time together today? I found this recipe for garlic curry that I think you'll like. We can watch that anime you've been talking about, the one about cooking. Maybe it will provide inspiration, haha.**

Now this was something Fuwa wanted to do. This was something that made her sit up, smile, and made her stomach growl and her heart expand. Her fingers typed faster than her brain processed the thoughts.

 **Yes. I'd like to do that. I'll see if you can come over to my place. What chapter did we leave off on?**

* * *

 **This chapter was influenced by periods in my life in which I lost a lot of weight and got apathetic from being depressed (I don't like to throw around that word, but it's what I've been at times), and all the physical ailments that go with that.**

 **Also literally everything I know about Boruto comes from 1. Memes and 2. What people tell me. Sorry if I misinterpreted what it's about, I've never watched it.**


	13. Hope

**Trigger warning: This chapter has a brief mention of suicidal contemplation. The past few chapters have been dark, but it should be looking up soon.**

 **Another thing… My oneshot,** ** _Hello Shooting Star, Again_** **, has received a huge explosion in favs/views recently. After messing around on TvTropes (and procrastinating getting schoolwork done *anime sweatdrop*), I have discovered that it was put on the fic recs page for AssClass. Thank you to Hemmyeg for that. Also thanks for all reviews.  
**

 **Am I the only one who thought Ritsu became Skynet in the epilogue?**

* * *

The Autonomous Intelligence Fixed Artillery, or Ritsu as she was called by her favorite people, was still cognizant of her device in 3-E. She hadn't visited it in seven months, though. The government had probably confiscated it. Not an issue for her. She existed on the internet, she was already installed on the phones of her classmates, and she could install herself on any device connected to the internet.

Right now, she was floating in cyberspace. The world wide web had a lot of cat videos to offer. She had gotten into fanfiction recently, she especially liked the Harry Potter ones. She had considered becoming an admin on some website, any website. But none of that comforted her right now.

 _Seven months._

Seven months was nothing to a computer. In twenty years, forty years, fifty years, she would still be here, so long as she got software and hardware upgrades she'd never change.

 _Never change._

Ritsu would never grow old. She would never get the gray hairs, wrinkles, or crows' feet. Her former classmates would be jealous of her for that when they were fifty, but truthfully _she_ was jealous of _them_. Nagisa and Kayano might finally look like adults at that age. Isogai was the type to age gracefully. But even if the years were generous to Okajima and he became good-looking, he'd probably continue to fail with the ladies. Eh, you can't have everything.

And Ritsu would never be forced to go through any of that. She could change her appearance when she was on a screen in front of them, sure, but she had no right to complain like they did.

And they would move on to do other things she wasn't capable of. They would have jobs as a bureaucrat, or a star actress, or even as a teacher like Koro-sensei. They could hold each other's hands (and interlock fingers!), kiss, and hug. Ritsu longed for that kind of intimacy. Maybe there was another Ritsu in the internet of things, who would be made soon, or even already existed, who could embrace her and give her that type of love.

And years and years after that…? Her beloved classmates would die. And she wouldn't join them. She'd thought of this before, she considered committing seppuku, but she didn't think that AIs could do that.

 _They'd all be gone_. And no one could replace her classmates. These folks on the internet, the average ones, they weren't interesting to her. The comments section on youtube was nothing but a mix of stupid and boring that assaulted her senses (was that what they were called? Ritsu didn't know if she had those or if she was just mislabeling what was going on in her motherboard).

And no matter how hard she tried to distract herself, Ritsu couldn't get her mind off of the fact that her classmates would be dead in a hundred years. She would be carrying on their legacy. Maybe she could add to their Wikipedia pages, to make them better detailed, so that people would not forget about those who "saved the world". But maybe some of them wouldn't like that. Chiba and Hayami certainly wouldn't. But Irina would. She did express an interest in writing an autobiography. Huh, she'd be old before all the rest of them...

Did Koro-sensei age? Probably not. Who knows how old he was when he was turned into a bright bubbly octopus. But he did die…

Losing him was enough. Ritsu knew she couldn't handle anymore loss, she wasn't equipped with that feature. Maybe it was possible for all of them to become AIs too and live in a cloud. There'd be no pain and sorrow, no mysteries or confusion. Isn't that what they called Heaven? Ritsu believed that there was one, maybe they could get there without death. Ritsu cracked a smile at the thought. Wasn't Heaven often portrayed as a literal cloud?

Ritsu clung to that thought like a kid with their favorite blanket. But no software could be a perfect place, and no software could store the essence of what she went through. But who knew about the future? It was 2016 and there were still no hoverboards, but there were 3-D printers. Ritsu was always looking towards the future. That was what technology was about.

The AI's lovely classmates were still on her mind. She may not be able to walk next to them, or hug them, or pat their backs, but they didn't forget her. Not in the slightest. They called to her at two a.m. when they were stressed from exams or just needed to talk. They showed her their grades and she helped them study for math with her built in graphing calculator. Okano poured out her heart and wailed to Ritsu when she failed her English test (because she broke down crying in the middle of it), and Ritsu helped Kataoka pick out an outfit for her date (and listened to her complaints when the dude turned out to be creepy).

And for the next reunion, Ritsu was already setting a countdown for everyone.

And with that, for the second time in the existence of the Autonomous Intelligence Fixed Artillery, she cried. But it wasn't like the first time she cried. This time her heart felt like it was floating away, her breath was slowing, and she had gooseflesh. And she was now sure that she was capable of all of that, that she was gaining these abilities. She felt surrounded by comfort rather than isolation.

 _Are these what they call tears of joy?_

* * *

 **Err… Please review this chapter. It feels like it might be too repetitive. I'm also not too sure about pronouns for Ritsu, I got the impression she identifies as female.  
**


	14. Comfort

**Several announcements:**

 **1\. So, I had another long hiatus. Sorry those keep happening. But I am not doing well. At all. I had to end last semester early due to a medical emergency that seems to have become a reoccurring thing now. I have severe insomnia. It took wayyyy too long after my surgery before I could sneeze or bend over without feeling like I was getting stabbed in the diaphragm. And that's just what's physically wrong here. Bottom line is, I was in a seriously not good place for the past two and a half months. That is not to say I didn't get any writing done. I did; it was for stories that I have not yet published.**

 **That being said, I am OVERJOYED that I could finally get this done. And this semester will be rough too, in spite of the fact that it's my last one and I took mostly electives… Once again, literally 50 plus pages of academic writing this semester…**

 **2\. My roommate got very very drunk and left my other roommate a crying voicemail over how there's a fire station in Antarctica. Yep, there is. Consider me telling you that to be an apology for how long I left y'all hanging.**

 **3\. From the bottom of my heart, thank you for the numerous reviews since the last chapter. I'm going to ask that you pretty please review this chapter too. It's the longest I have written for this fic so far (it's still pretty much a drabble though), and it's hands down the one I enjoyed writing the most and got the most emotional over. But reading it over now, it goes in so many different directions, seems like it has too much going on, and I'm not sure if it's the easiest to follow.**

 **Also this chapter marks the 200,000th word of fanfiction I've published. I'll celebrate by writing more fanfiction.**

* * *

A tear fell on page 179 of the book Kayano was reading. This was a surprise, as Kayano barely cried anymore. Sometimes she theorized that all her tears for her lifetime (or maybe just the next few years) had been released on the occasions she cried. When she sat at her mother's side in the hospital, screaming at the doctors that they were all liars and Mom would be fine, in spite of every single organ failing, one after the other. When she saw her sister crushed by rubble, and rushed over only to find no pulse and several gaping wounds. The dozens of times she was curled over in bed, paralyzed from the agony the tentacles inflicted on her.

And of course, when Koro-sensei died.

This all happened in the last three years.

She took a sip of her coffee. She thought of going to a café to get one of her fall drinks that she loved so much, but today was Halloween. It would be so crowded, and Kayano didn't want to deal with the crowds as of recently. The thought that many of those people would go to the movie theater to watch one of those trashy horror flicks that she avoided being in like the plague ate at her mind. So she went straight home after school.

Kayano, or more properly Akari, never liked the fall. Or winter. Her tiny frame made her so sensitive to the cold. It was toasty warm in the apartment she lived in alone, but she still wrapped herself up like a burrito in that fleece blanket that her sister gave her last winter, the one that had an ugly orange and pink floral pattern. When she was a child, her sister used to hug her to keep her warm. Prompted by that thought, Kayano got up and went to the butsudan, needing to get away from the outside world and closer to one of the people she loved most.

Kayano always found comfort in her belief that nee-san was really still there, and it was only her earthly body that died. Kayano often sensed her spirit, as if she was still on earth watching over her and her friends, as was Koro-sensei. Sometimes it felt like she was looking down from Heaven. Fuwa had said a while ago that she pictured Koro-sensei and Aguri wearing twin halos that dimmed a bit when they were disappointed in one of their students. They had transcended the limits that earthly life had placed on them, they could now move anywhere between Heaven and Earth, walk by her side as she walked along Shibuya Crossing, even though there may be little space between her and the rest of the crowd. They cheered her on, outside the windows of her classroom, while she took exams. They were right next to her now, patting her back and trying to bring her down from an outburst.

And Kayano knew with absolute certainty that nee-san would protect her, her children and grandchildren, and Kayano wanted to join Aguri to do the same to her own descendants after she herself died, in the far future. Okano tried to comfort Kayano when she had a crying spell on Aguri's birthday, with a 'Maybe you'll be reincarnated as sisters again someday'. While Kayano did believe in reincarnation, she preferred the idea that her sister could have an active role in the lives of everyone precious to her today.

Cue waterworks again. Reaching for tissues, and forgetting that she ran out the last time she did this. The urge to lie down on the floor struck her, but her downward spiral was interrupted when her phone _ding_ 'd.

It was a Line message from Nagisa.

Nagisa… Another person she loved dearly, though it was in a different way than all of the others who were always on her mind. She had no clue if he felt the same. One thing was sure, he didn't know that she felt the way she did. Nakamura was right, he could give Karasuma a run for his money for the title of Densest Guy in the Entire Nation of Japan. Everyone saw it but him. Everyone wanted them together. Karma and Nakamura sometimes sent her teasing messages, about the newest romance movie and how she should bring Nagisa to see it and the two of those devils would hide in the backseats of the theater and witness everything.

Did Koro-sensei see it? And did he want them to end up together? The test of courage certainly implied that. She was certain that nee-san did.

Anyway, time to look at the message and respond to it. It wasn't like her to just leave him hanging.

 **Hey, Kayano.**

…And it wasn't like _him_ to just lead with that. His messages always had a purpose. 'Hi, do you want to do karaoke tonight' or 'Do you want to go to Hakone with me this weekend?'. It was never just 'Hey'.

And how else could she respond to that? There was an endless list of things she wanted to say to him, but right now was not the time and Line was not a good medium for any of them. _Call me Akari, I love you, be with me forever._

So she went with a response that was equally nondescript as his message.

 **Hey Nagisa. What are you doing?**

Send. Now to her routine, the one that never cleared her mind but was necessary for going outside the house (the place she'd have to go soon, whether she liked it or not). She moved her book to the butsudan, as it was one of nee-san's favorites and she was the one who lent it to her. But it was a chemistry textbook. Nee-san really did prioritize education, didn't she?

To the bath Kayano went. But she merely sat in the hot water and meditated for fifteen minutes.

Kayano had an idea of where her future would go, which she was sure made Koro-sensei happy and proud. She would be an actress as long as she could, then just sort of… retire. She'd probably be thirty when that happened. Idols didn't last too much longer than that.

The faucet dripped.

 _What will I do after that?_

Maybe she should go to college after all. Or maybe she'd still have enough money from her time in the spotlight to last until she breathed her last breath. That might be fun for a while, traveling the world and buying nice clothes. Or so she tried to tell herself. Kayano was not materialistic or greedy. It wasn't that she rejected the idea of a luxurious life, but more the fact that she needed little to be happy. A home or apartment or condo. Pudding. A family. She definitely wanted the last.

The future held a lot of time to think about that, but Kayano was rapidly becoming a long-term thinker since Koro-sensei's death.

The water bubbled with the soap that she poured in. It smelled like "moonlight path". Her favorite scent. Well, besides the smell of the cookies nee-san always made her after every audition. And Nagisa. She knew from the times he hugged her, when he kissed her… And she noticed it even more after her tentacles were removed, as that allowed her to focus on things besides her agony, which were previously only a footnote in her life.

The nape of Kayano's neck itched. And that was worse than the days that it burned, or ached, or that she had flashbacks. So she scratched it.

Of course, it didn't really itch. Nor did it ever burn or ache. It was a psychosomatic thing. When she thought about it, it would itch or burn or ache, a bit like when her face suddenly itched the moment they started shooting for a scene in that drama that everyone lost their composure over and that spurred 'fans' to take pictures of her when they thought she wasn't looking.

Those days weren't all sunshine and roses either. The pressure of stardom at times was too much. Maybe the focus on body image was the reason for her insecurities. She remembered the nights she spent crying into her pillow, and how her sister would comfort her. All the mornings she had panic attacks before walking to the set, in fear that a crazy fan would kidnap her, a tiny ten-year-old girl. She'd arrive late, and the co-star who played the role of her brother would give her a nasty glare until the director told him to knock it off.

 _Mmm, not this again…_

When Kayano looked at her fingernails, they were covered in blood. Sigh. This happened sometimes.

Up out of the bathtub. She needed to wash the nape of her neck in a place where she could see it, and the mirror was a few steps from her bathtub. The last time she played a guessing game about where the blood was, she ended up missing spots and people at school took notice. Again. She didn't need that.

She had become a bit of a celebrity at school, now that rumors of her being Haruna Mase began to circulate. Maybe she'd have to change schools again. She didn't want to do that. But if she had to change schools, she'd like to go to one any of her friends were going to. Kunugigaoka's High School was looking really good right about now, she could visit her sister and Koro-sensei… Though they were always with her, she still felt closer to them when she was at the mountain.

 _Ding._ Nagisa took unusually long to respond to that message. It never took more than five or ten minutes for him to answer her. Kayano picked up her phone from the little spot she left it, in the closet, on top of a folded towel.

 **Not much, just chilling. You?**

 _What?_ That didn't sound like Nagisa, not at all. 'Chilling' was not a word in his vocabulary. And it wasn't like him to text anyone to just chat. Maybe Karma stole his phone and was messing with them… Wait, Karma would have sent her heart emojis and messages to proclaim love and a desire to kiss her again.

So it was Nagisa after all. Time to respond.

 **I'm reading a book.**

She got a response immediately.

 **Cool.**

Was he procrastinating getting schoolwork done? Nah. She knew him well enough to know that wasn't like him. He was emotional right now, that was what was going on here.

She wiped away what seemed to be the last of the blood with a washcloth and dried the area. Going back to the bathtub and finishing her bath, she wrapped a towel around herself and went to look for pajamas. She didn't plan on going out anyway.

 _Buzz buzz buzz buzz buzz._

… And now it was time to ignore the dozens of emails that Kayano received from her director, manager, agent and whoever else. Surely this was about them wanting to know when she'd like to return to acting, they wanted to secure a role for then. Maybe someday there'd be a movie about the Assassination Classroom, and she'd get an offer to be in it. She could play herself, hell she'd probably look fourteen at the age of twenty-five.

But she hoped that wouldn't ever be made. Those Hollywood assholes would take the story and totally twist it. Koro-sensei would be portrayed as the villain, with E Class the poor victims of abuse and brainwashing, they all let their powers combine to overwhelm their captor. Koro-sensei dies in some big explosion and all the pairs that Koro-sensei tried to push together on Valentine's Day would walk off into the sunset together, hand in hand. And even if it was portrayed accurately, a movie couldn't possibly capture all that happened that year.

With that thought, Kayano returned to the window. The stars were coming out, and the sky was turning purple. She remembered her sister once saying that the stars looked like cracks in the sky that let in the sunlight of the daytime (surprising that came from a _teacher_ , who of all people knew better), but Kayano preferred to think of them as the eyes of her ancestors, watching and guiding her.

That constellation caught her eye. The one that looked exactly like Koro-sensei. She very often prayed to it, and she knew from her meetings with Okuda and Okano and Kataoka and Nagisa that they did so too, and she was sure that many of their classmates did the same.

It seemed like time to do so again. She kneeled on the ground and clasped her hands together, contemplating how to begin her prayer. What to ask for?

Her phone started to ring. Kayano ran back into the bathroom to fetch it, only hoping for one person, and she saw the name that she hoped for.

 _Call from: Nagisa Shiota_

Her heart leaped into her chest, she hadn't seen his face in person in two weeks. She accepted the call, her heart pounding.

"Hi," Nagisa answered the other line. "Today's… "

"Rough?" Her voice cracked.

"I suppose you could say that." She knew all too well. He was playing with his hair, staring at his feet, then she heard the _thud_ of him sitting down on the hardwood floor.

"I just sort of… Want to talk?" He was asking himself, as well as her.

"You can talk to me." Surely he knew that? That's why he called _her_ , that made sense.

Some silence. Then he spoke.

"… I want to go back."

"To the assassination classroom?" I twirled my hair, which was down in black waves around my shoulders.

"Yes." Another pause. "But it's cold today."

"We can still go. I'll come with you." She opened her drawer for daytime clothes, suited to being out in public. The outside might not be so bad if she was out there with Nagisa.

"No. Another day. It's too crowded out. I want to be alone. Besides, well, you… I miss you."

Her heart melted. "… I miss you too."

"I keep thinking of Koro-sensei, and how… We had so much time to prepare for him to leave us, but it still felt so sudden, as if we were in denial about letting go. About what was inevitable."

Her heart dropped into her belly. That wasn't what happened with her mom, her sister, they left suddenly. Koro-sensei may have not left abruptly, but her pain was the same… She lost almost everyone she had loved. That could happen to Nagisa too. He could be hit by a truck tomorrow on the walk to school.

She missed everything about Nagisa. His smile, his gentle nature, the way he focused on his target. It wasn't just the fact that she didn't want to be alone tonight; she needed _him_ , no one else would do. Her apartment was empty and missing one Nagisa Shiota, even if it was only for now.

Kayano felt something slithery and gentle on her left shoulder. A tentacle? Then she felt a hand on her other shoulder, this one a human hand, and smelled the lilac perfume that her sister always wore.

"Actually… Can you come over?" The words escaped her dry lips, no more than a whisper, it was almost just breathing.

She could just hear Nagisa's expression over the phone. A gentle smile, the one that made her fall in love with him. She could hear his breathing.

"Yes. I want to see you too."

* * *

… **Sorry for being so obsessed with Nagikae and Kayano. Please review (I think I wrote them kind of ooc), sorry about leaving ya'll hanging for two and a half months, and happy (late) Valentine's Day.**


	15. Connection

**Disclaimer: Rio's feelings on Japan do not reflect my own. Japan is a wonderful country that I wish I could go back to. This is just my headcanon about her thoughts and opinions.**

 **If I have not responded to your PM, I'm sorry. It may have gotten lost in the abyss (because FFN has been buggy recently, even buggier than usual), or I forgot about it, or I didn't know how to respond. I love each and every one of you.**

 **As always, thanks for all reviews, favs, and follows, and please review again!**

* * *

Rio Nakamura was slouched against a bench in the middle of a nearby park on a Sunday night, one just a few blocks away from her house. And not too far from Kunugigaoka. Just the perfect distance between the two, or so she would have thought last year.

This was not new to her. During her delinquent days, she'd cut classes to hang out here a lot. With those guys, but they had all taken the threat of being dropped into the E-as-in-End Class as a motive to study harder, and wound up in A through D Classes. What were their names again? Oh, who cares? They were boring anyways.

Well, nonetheless, she found herself wandering here again, perhaps for nostalgia's sake. The weather was cold, there was even frost on the ground, the owls were hooting, and there was a nice breeze. But none of these things could calm the blonde girl's anxieties.

Her parents definitely weren't looking for her. She made sure of that. She had slipped out at 11 pm, long past their bedtime. And they were heavy sleepers. No, that wasn't what worried her.

She wasn't worried about being ambushed in this park either. Her assassin skills were still as sharp as ever. Just the other day, her little brother snuck up on her and she could hear him coming from the other end of the house. She spun around and caught him in mid-air, tickling him until he swore up and down to never come into her room without asking again (she had things she didn't want him seeing).

Rio Nakamura knew it well enough, as much denial as she was in, that her anxieties were about things that were out of her control, things that she could not escape from. And the train of thought that would force her to accept that soon enough was completely thrown off by the appearance of a certain someone.

"Hey."

She was surprised by _this_ person's presence here at this time. "Wow. Of all people who could be in this park at this time of night, the high and mighty Gakushuu Asano decides to make an appearance."

"You better believe it." Gakushuu took his hands out of his pockets and sat down next to her head. "So what're you doing here at this time?"

"Probably the same as you. Well, actually, probably not. I'm not looking to take over the world."

"Haha. That's my dad's job, not mine."

"You Asanos really are something else." Nakamura sighed and sat up.

"You're one to talk."

They sat in silence for a few moments. Nakamura didn't really know how to respond to that, or if she even wanted to. If you had told her in the seventh grade that one day she'd be sitting on a park bench with Gakushuu Asano, she'd have laughed in your face. And been a little excited, honestly. She always kind of had a soft spot for him. _Shut up, mind. You just think he's hot and want to embarrass him because you think he's even hotter when he's embarrassed._

"So… How's the new school?" Gakushuu rapped his fingers against the bench.

"Oh…" The blonde was rather caught off guard by that question. "It's good."

That was at least a truthful answer. The school was good, wonderful even. She had already made friends (who appreciated her sense of humor, though they were few), she was excelling in all of her classes (no one like an octopus to get you to develop healthy studying habits), even the cafeteria food was good. But none of that made her _happy_. Good thing that wasn't what he asked.

"Hey, why don't you answer your own question? What brings _you_ here?"

Gakushuu got up to go to the vending machine a few steps away. "I just wanted some time to myself. Gotta sort out my thoughts."

"Then I was correct. That's the same reason I'm here."

"Sometimes parents are just too overbearing." Gakushuu put change in the machine. "Even when they're trying to turn over a new leaf."

 _That_ she couldn't relate to. Her parents were never so annoying that she had to leave the house to get away from them. She remembered them weeping when she dropped into E Class, and again when her older brother graduated high school. Besides that, they were surprisingly relaxed, at least compared to her classmates' folks. Having the chairman as a father sounded like a nightmare.

"What do you want?" His voice was rough, but she could sense that there was something more gentle behind it, something that most people weren't able to uncover.

"Uh, Calpis, if they have it."

Asano handed the bottle to her. That was another surprise tonight; if she were Karma Akabane he would have almost certainly chucked it at her head.

Nakamura sat up and cracked open the bottle. "So. Next question. How's Kunugigaoka High?"

He thought for a minute. "Wild."

"I would think, competing with Karma Akabane all the time. Who's winning?"

"Sometimes me, sometimes him." Gakushuu sipped his coffee. "Sometimes someone else."

"It's a bit late at night to drink that stuff."

"Don't tell me how to live my life."

Another bout of quiet as they both drank up left Nakamura with her thoughts.

"So… How are your classes?" Gakushuu asked her as she finished her drink.

"I got straight A's." She bragged.

"As did I."

Hmm. They had more in common than she thought. Maybe he was also affected by Koro-sensei? Certainly not to the extent that she was, but that bright yellow octopus, the fact that he even existed on the campus, yet alone the fact that he transformed the losers and rejects of the school into some of the best students, ones that put _him_ to shame, HAD to affect him. Probably. But how did he deal with that pain? The same way she did...

Oh yeah, Asano's presence made her totally forget about the thing she was going to do before he mozied on in here. Stealthily, she reached into her pocket and pulled out a rectangular box.

"Huh? When did you start smoking?"

"What do you mean? You saw me right now." But her pocket didn't contain the other thing she needed. She only had her phone, wallet, and keys. Dammit. She must have left her lighter in her room.

This was another thing not new to her, she did this from time to time. It may have technically been illegal for sixteen-year-olds to smoke in Japan, but that convenience store a few blocks from her school had a cashier HER age, he went to a school only a few kilometers away- was this just one of those corrupt family businesses that the cops didn't care about? But Yuki-kun was sympathetic to her, maybe that was just the bond between teenagers.

Koro-sensei's spirit wasn't proud of her for smoking. That was for sure. But she'd certainly do a lot of things that would disappoint him in the future. So why bother now?

"Can I have a light?" She pushed away that thought.

"Huh? I'm insulted you assume that-"

"Cut the shit, Daddy Issues. I know you have a lighter."

 _Tch._ She was correct. And it was stolen from Daddy, to boot, a year ago, when the Principal was giving him the silent treatment over his loosing that bet to E Class. The Principal still had yet to notice. He had a dozen, so maybe he never would. He never paid much attention to his lighters anyway.

"How did you know I had one?" He handed it to her, defeated.

"Very reliable sources." She handed the lighter back after completing the task it was in her hand for. "Very reliable."

"So, Akabane." Gakushuu gathered, correctly. He crossed his legs, it was almost elegant. "And apropos of that, what about this Koro-sensei guy? Who do I have to talk to to hear all about him? Akabane isn't saying a word."

She hummed. "I don't think you'll have better luck with the rest of us." Puff. Inhale.

Dammit. Gakushuu couldn't help but wonder if Koro-sensei would have made _him_ a better student, or more importantly a better person. He noticed the confidence that Isogai gained, the fewer and fewer rumors floating around about Maehara cheating as the year went on.

But one thing Gakushuu didn't notice, was that this whole conversation just made the blonde quiver. Everything she wanted to escape from, it was just being rubbed in her face, every day of every week.

To be surrounded by the language that Koro-sensei spoke. To wake up in the morning and see that mountain in the distance, the one she went to every day for a year. To bump into one of her old classmates on the street and think of the last time they were all together. To constantly worry that any of her classmates and beloved friends would find out about her experiences last year, and would bother her about it (she might explode at them, like she heard about Okuda doing). And yet still she came to this park, there wasn't even a place in the city that she could go to without being reminded of it all! Even Wakkanai or the very southern tip of Kagoshima wouldn't be far enough.

"I hate this fucking country." She coughed. She wasn't sure if it was the smoke or her emotions. "I want to hop on the next plane and- _go_."

"Where to?" To Gakushuu, it was certainly out of nowhere. But he just rolled with it.

"Anywhere but here." She added after a pause. "Somewhere where English is spoken."

"So that rules out Antarctica." She smiled, for the first time tonight, and for the first time ever at something Gakushuu Asano said. So this was his sense of humor.

"I'm leaving Japan too."

"Really?"

"I'm going to Harvard, like my father."

"How are you so sure of that?"

"Because I'm me." Gakushuu pulled out a cigarette of his own, to mask what insecurity was coming through in his voice. He had been doubting himself a lot recently, after all he wasn't the undisputed best anymore, not since this Koro-sensei guy rolled into town and there was something that A Class called a 'Peasant's Revolt'. Though this conversation did help him to feel less negativity-

"Well, I'll be damned." The lighter was broken. It clicked and switched, but no flame appeared. The Principal would kill him.

Nakamura leaned over him, seeing what had occurred. His cigarette was still in his mouth. Hmm. That gave her an idea.

"Look up here."

She pushed her face closer and closer to his, pressing their cigarettes together.

Nakamura was unsure if the heat between them was from the flame or from her face being _right in front of his_. But it worked, and the cigarette was smoldering and hot and firey once again.

"I take it you need a replacement?" She pointed towards the lighter.

"Uh, yeah." Clearly he didn't know how to respond to what just happened between them, which gave the blonde a bit of sadistic joy. She was right, she did find him even cuter when he was a blushing, stuttering mess.

"Come with me. Yuki's on shift right now." Asano, still baffled, grabbed the cigarette that had fallen into his hands and stuck it back in his mouth, trying to avoid conversation for now.

Maybe someday she'd tell him all about Koro-sensei. Maybe someday they'd see the world together. But tonight, to be away from their problems was all either of them wanted.

* * *

 **A/N: I read like two fics of these two and now I can't help but ship them.**

 **Wakkanai and Kagoshima: The northernmost and southernmost cities in mainland Japan, respectively.**

 **Please review this chapter. I really don't know how this turned out. It doesn't feel right, but I've been planning for this one for a while and was really excited for it. Let me know if you think it was lacking or something.**


	16. Distance

**Add me to the list of people whose OS got totally trashed by the latest Windows update. That's only a burner computer, I prefer my Chromebook by a lot, but I still use the windows one frequently so that's a super disappointment.**

 **I started writing the next few chapters because this one was a bit tough for me, and while it's definitely more positive and less angsty, the content is getting kinda… vulgar. Nothing too drastic, but stuff that you might not want to hear about if you are particularly sensitive. I'll throw a content warning on each chapter to describe what the deal is, though.**

 **I want to finish this fic by graduation (sound familiar? Haha), which is May 18. And since I've got a good portion of the next few chapters written and the ones following that will not be very long (around 1000 words apiece), I'm kicking up the update rate on this (probably every 2-3 days). My finals are May 4-10, so for that week there won't be much, but the week after that should be very active, maybe even double chapters some days! We'll see, my lovlies.**

* * *

November had grown _cold_. When Karma Akabane saw his classmates walk home today, they shuddered uncontrollably, noses red and dripping and sneezing. When one of his classmates walked into the room this morning, he saw that her hair was _frozen solid_ from going straight from the shower she took this morning to the outside, the air had made it stiff. The jungle gym that Karma was sitting on chilled him to the bones. It wouldn't be long before these bars became icy and Karma wouldn't be able to sit on them any longer. Already the children had stopped playing on them, even the animals seemed to be staying off. This didn't phase Karma. He could barely feel it, he didn't even shudder.

Not because he was sad. No, quite the contrary. He was rather happy. Their second trimester midterms had passed a few weeks ago, and the top score list that was hung at the entrance of the school said it all: Karma Akabane, 1st place, 500 points. Gakushuu Asano, 3rd place, 498 points. A new rival of both himself and Asano, Akio Shiahara, was ranked between them with 499 points. Such close scores, it was so much more satisfying and felt like a much bigger accomplishment than the time during the first trimester finals when Shiahara, who had claimed first place and put both Karma and Asano to shame during that trimester's midterms, apparently decided not to study and landed in fifteenth place. Karma had taken first place again. Though honestly, was that feeling of pity due to the fact that Karma had been there once before?

Yes, Karma felt like he was competing with worthy opponents. He was pleased with the challenges he got on an academic level. He had friends he had grown close to (though they still weren't 3-E). And even Asano seemed to be more tolerable these days, willing to concede defeat and he seemed to smile and laugh more. Yep, Kunugigaoka High School was a grand old place.

A child, one who couldn't be any older than ten, kicked a soccer ball in his direction. Karma slipped off the bars to kick it back. It wasn't even clear if that boy noticed Karma was there and was hoping for someone, anyone, to respond to him in this cold and lonely night, or if Karma was obscured by the shadows and the boy wasn't expecting a response and was rather just goofing off.

Karma smiled before he crawled back on the jungle gym- though this time he didn't climb so far up this time, since he figured he'd be going home soon. But no matter what was going on in the boy's head, Karma could certainly relate to him, much like he could relate to his new rival. The whole reason Karma was here was in hope that he'd see other humans, to escape to loneliness of his empty house, just to affirm that other people simply _exist_. And Karma had done this before many times, the playground was not usually his spot of choice but why not mix it up a bit? Karma may have been happy, but what's happiness if there's no one to share it with?

"Tomoya! Time to go back home!" A voice that presumably belonged to the boy's mother rang out, and the boy picked up the ball and ran towards the voice.

But THAT he couldn't relate to. His parents were never really around for him for most of his life. The moment he turned 11, and was mostly self-sufficient, they made it a point to be out of the house and away from him as often as possible, be it on business trips or vacations. He couldn't remember ever hearing their voices to beckon him home at the end of a long day, drawing him to a refuge from the cold into a warm and loving environment.

They didn't even come to his graduation from Kunugigaoka. They sent a short Line message about how worried they were about him and what a horror that class but have been and how sad they were that they'd miss the ceremony but the Ides of March only happens once a year and how could they not spend that in Rome, watching street performers reenact the assassination of Julius Caesar? Their son was involved in an assassination, but they had no interest in that.

Koro-sensei never failed him like that. Koro-sensei came to the sports festival and cheered Karma and all of his classmates on. Koro-sensei visited him at his house when he was concerned about him, or even just to invite him to attend that festival. Koro-sensei encouraged him to excel and pushed him to do his best, even if that involved giving some tough love at times.

And if Koro-sensei were still alive today, he'd surely show up to every high school and college graduation, every wedding, he'd probably continue that tradition he had of showing up at everyone's house with gifts and good wishes on their birthdays. Karma remembered when Koro-sensei showed up for his birthday, in spite of it being on Christmas and a hectic day. Kayano had almost fully recovered but the hospital was still keeping her for observation. Koro-sensei had spent the day fussing over her (he'd rush in when the nurses weren't looking, when he was caught he claimed to be her father), and visited Karma at 8:00 pm. Karma didn't mind the wait, and at no point during the day did he think that Koro-sensei wouldn't visit. Koro-sensei is always there for all of his students, not just the ones who needed him most.

As a cold breeze assaulted him, Karma was reminded of how cold his legs and back were leaning against this jungle gym. And of the structure itself. The last time he sat here was the time that he watched the crumbling moon after Koro-sensei's death. He was on the phone with Nagisa and Kayano that night. Nagisa was on the little balcony of his apartment building seeing the same thing. Kayano was sitting in that cute little cafe near her own apartment. They all had the same opinion, though: They would miss the crescent moon.

Karma had heard things like that. You may be separated from the people you care about the most, but you are still looking at the same moon. Someday the three of them, and the rest of the class, would be separated by distance (though the distance probably wouldn't be much, the inevitable communication breakdown would make it seem so much worse), but they'd all look at the moon and think of each other, of Koro-sensei, of that year.

Hmm. That applied to Okuda as well. He sometimes wondered what went on in her head. As he was honest with her, he liked to believe she was honest with him. It'd be nice if they could communicate via telepathy, sometimes Rio joked that Chiba and Hayami did. Because no matter how much he liked her, how much he spoke with her, she was still difficult to read, as she still struggled to express herself. That was another thing that separated people- misunderstandings, boundaries of language.

The moon looked different than it did that day, the day he spoke to Nagisa and Kayano. Its crumbling had slowed now. Soon it would completely shatter, and the force of its own gravity would pull the remnants together and it would become yet another moon, the third in the past two years. Where would this go after that? Would there be yet another moon in two years, ten years, twenty years?

Hmm. In all that time, Karma had hoped that he'd grow to be a happy and successful person. He was already both happy and successful, but Koro-sensei had prepared him to go in an upwards direction.

Okuda told him, the last time they spoke, that the project she and Takebayashi had been working on was going very well. Hopefully they'd put the stuff Koro-sensei gave them to good use. Surely they'd go on to do great things. So would Nagisa, so would Kayano. So would Isogai, for sure. And even Maehara, so long as he could hold off of hitting on all of his coworkers (that'd probably be a lesson he'd have to learn the hard way). And Terasaka and his goons, though Karma had always thought that Hazama was the smart one of that group, they _all_ had potential. Potential that only a silly-looking superhuman octopus could bring out.

Karma felt a very distinct… _Something_ pat him on the head. It was narrower than a hand, and less forceful than an animal falling from a tree. And his head felt wet and slimy after it was removed. Karma looked up, having some idea of what happened.

It was unfortunate, but you could never get a good picture of the moon. Not with your phone. He, his friends, his classmates, had all tried hundreds of times. It's just too far away, how arrogant are you to think that your mere phone can capture the moon, the epicenter of the defining event of your generation?

But he just noticed that yellow blob. And he could make out its features- a giant smile. Appendages that were floating around. How long was it there?

Karma felt like he was going insane, in the best possible way.

Koro-sensei, on the moon. And he was waving.

Karma didn't know if it was real, if this was Koro-sensei contacting him from Heaven, or if he was imagining the whole thing.

But whatever it was, Karma was happy. And he heard words whispered in his ears, as if their speaker was right next to him.

" _Everything is going well, Karma. Once a student of Koro-sensei, always a student of Koro-sensei."_

* * *

 **Yep… I had to put Karmanami in there. This chapter was surprisingly hard to write, but I really wanted to get to Karma next. Please let me know how I did in the reviews.**

 **No, canonically Koro-sensei is never shown acknowledging his students' birthdays, yet alone giving them gifts… It's just a headcanon I have. So no, you didn't forget anything there, my friends. (:**

 **Yes, your hair can freeze solid if it's wet in the cold. It's happened to me.**


	17. Seeking

**I should just throw a disclaimer up on here…**

 **This chapter is a bit… Well, it's another chapter that justifies the T rating. There's a makeout that's pretty thoroughly described. I will tell you right now that it does NOT go further, and there are no references to anything too sexual. So I don't think it will be particularly upsetting to most people, but if any description of intimacy whatsoever disturbs you, tread lightly.**

 **And I know I said there'd be 1000-ish word chapters, but this one just sort of spiraled out of control and ended up being a lot more than that.**

* * *

The feeling of lips on skin. The sound of her pulse, her knees pressed against his.

And then the hot breathing on his neck stopped.

"Put some effort into it."

"Huh?" If Hiroto Maehara were to have a thought bubble, like in those manga that Fuwa was obsessed with, it would be full of nothing but question marks.

"Am I not attractive? I feel like you aren't even here, like your soul flew out of you and left behind your body." Maehara's girlfriend of the month was certainly eye-catching, blonde with large blue eyes, soft skin, and an exquisite complexion. Kind of like Bitch-sensei.

"No, babe. You're plenty hot, I'm just..."

"Shut up." She attacked his lips again. He kept up the charade for another 15 seconds, before giving into the fact that every second he spent here with her was just another brick in the neverending, monotonous wall that was his love life, one that did nothing for him and that was a waste to pursue to the end. As he thought about this, his motivation was totally zapped, and it showed in his body language. His mouth went limp and his knees fell to the ground.

She pulled away from him. "It's like kissing a cardboard cutout of you." Having apparently had enough, she collected her purse, only two feet away, and put on her coat (she had brought it up to his room, the space heaters were not doing their job today). She had taken the hint to go home, or at least to go anywhere but here.

"Wait, Aiko-" He got up and tried to pursue her. She pushed him in the chest, forcing him to fall back on the bed.

"Asshole."

Maehara's heart pounded, it was a wonder he could hear her next words.

"You're boring." She threw him one final glance over her shoulder, and walked away.

Damn. That one stung. Scumbag, horndog, slut, all of those rolled like water off a duck's back. But boring?

"I'm not boring." He grasped at his chest, and slowly sat up. But by the time he thought of that comeback, his little lady friend was long gone, the clack of her heels against the hardwood floor at the landing in faded away, the sound of the front door to Maehara's house slamming.

He should have known better than to get involved with her. She had a boyfriend, one who went to another school. If the pictures were to be believed, that guy was _not_ someone he wanted to piss off, even if he was an assassin. But Aiko had a sob story. Her boy toy was a douchebag, cheated on her, told her she couldn't see her male friends, kept stringing her along with promises that he just kept breaking. So meeting here where he couldn't find them was definitely the best move, especially considering that the rest of his family were out tonight. No, the best move would have been not meeting her at all.

It was clear she wanted more than what they did tonight. But Maehara didn't. The idea made him sick. She was bad news for him, and he was bad news for her.

He picked up his socks, which his little friend had ripped off and thrown to the ground. They were red and green with Christmas trees. A gift from his sister for his birthday, which was only a few days ago.

Yep, Christmas was coming up. It was supposed to be a romantic holiday, all of those anime and manga had episodes where everybody kissed and confessed. But Maehara was planning to spend it with no one. Not that there weren't girls, even now they practically got in line to get a chance with him.

His heart wasn't in it anymore. He couldn't connect with any of these girls. They were cute, sure. Haruhi was a good kisser, Yuna had a very cheery personality, and Mei had that whole shy girl thing going on that Maehara loved (in fact, it was he who pursued her, only to lose interest two months later). They were nice enough to make out and and hold hands with… Until today.

And even before today, he really felt nothing. After a few hours he found himself trying to make excuses to go home. He needed to help his mom with dinner, he had too much homework, he left the iron on on the stove and the sink running and the dog needed food and the flowers needed to be watched or they'd eat his sister's pet hamster.

Why did they keep asking him out? Didn't they hear about his reputation? Was he really just that good-looking? He'd just leave them after a month anyway, they needed to catch on to that for their own sake. At least he had finally graduated to the behavior of dating one girl at a time.

He wasn't really sure why he ever did otherwise, honestly. Maybe it wasn't the excuse he gave back then, and up until right now, that women were just so beautiful and irresistible to him and he couldn't just pick one. Maybe a part of him gained satisfaction from sneaking around, the thrill that he might get caught, and the feeling when he saw Hanamura chatting and laughing with Yashima and they parted ways with a smile, assuring Maehara that the topic of him did not come up. The feeling of relief. But the topic of him must have come up eventually because he got dumped by both of them via text on the same day. One was an "I don't see this relationship working out", another was just "scumbag".

"You need to straighten out your act," Kataoka had warned him with a shaking finger when she heard about that incident. "At this rate, you'll have three baby mommas by the time you're thirty."

Maehara, offended, looked at Isogai, who just shrugged. "She's not wrong, you know." Maeahara was hoping for defense from his longtime best friend. But Isogai was just doing the right thing, and Maeahara couldn't hold that against him.

Another thing he heard from Kataoka was "How many times were you caught cheating on your girlfriend?" Caught? Four. Actually cheated? Significantly more than four.

His old classmates… They kept him grounded, even when he annoyed the girls by hitting on all of them at some point (except Kataoka). And he had been rejected by each and every one. Kurahashi delivered the rejection with a smile an a "No way! I have standards!". Hayami just glared and walked away. Maehara had even hit on Nagisa thinking was a girl. Maehara should have known otherwise, since he hit on enough girls to know what their aura was like, but Nagisa would just make the CUTEST girl. But female Nagisa would still have rejected him.

The girls in 3-E... Their trip to Kyoto came flooding back, overtaking his mind and overwriting any other thought he had. He had heard from Mimura who heard from Sugaya who heard from Fuwa that Nakamura had started girl talk one night. According to her, he and Isogai were the most physically attractive guys in their class, and the others chimed in with their vote of Karma. And they mostly all agreed that Maehara's and Karma's personalities were major turn-offs. So Isogai was the best in yet another category. Not that Maehara held it against his best friend.

Though they did not rank the boys, like the boys did with them. Thank goodness. Maehara didn't want to know exactly how much of a buzzkill his own personality was.

As for the boys' little activity that night… It was obvious (to Maehara) who voted for whom. Chiba had voted for Kanzaki. Everyone knew the real answer was Hayami, but he probably knew Hayami would get too many votes due to her standoffish personality (as cute as she was). If he went with the flow, no one would see Hayami's name on the list and think of Chiba. Kimura must have voted for Kurahashi, he was always blushing and stuttering around her. Too bad she didn't feel the same way. And there was that time that a bunch of them crowded in the closet to hide from Karasuma during a game of cops and robbers and Kayano sat on Nagisa's lap... And when they were caught Nagisa refused to walk off to the 'jail', and made the lamest excuses to not stand up. So that explained one of Kayano's votes.

Maehara was the only one unsurprised by Karma's favor of Okuda (though he pretended to indeed be surprised). Maehara was perceptive about the romantic interests and behaviors of others (since he did have lots of experience in that department). So the way Karma smiled, the way he looked at Okuda, how impressed he seemed to be with her first assassination attempt on Koro-sensei, how he gravitated towards her, did not go unnoticed by Maehara. Those things were overlooked by everyone else.

But as for Maehara… Who he voted for was really not relevant now, was it?

Maehara felt compelled to pick up that yearbook, the one that Koro-sensei made for all of them, he kept it on his desk and had an eye on it during the whole makeout session. The exact page it opened up to (was that Koro-sensei's doing?) was a drawing of Koro-sensei and Yukimura-sensei that Sugaya did. He photocopied it and gave copies to everyone. Maehara had stuck it in between page 5 and 6, right in between that two page spread that was the picture of the whole class. Koro-sensei had somehow managed to take a selfie like that. And everyone, even the Terasaka gang seemed thrilled. But Maehara knew that there was a lot of sadness there. This picture was taken only a week or so before Koro-sensei's death, when he took them to all of those places across the world. Maybe he was gaining emotional intelligence in areas other than romance and attraction?

But right now, Maehara couldn't take his eyes off of the picture of the two greatest teachers that he'd ever had in his life. The way Sugaya captured it _had_ to be the way it was- Koro-sensei's sheer love for Yukimura-sensei just came through in his speech. His word choice, the way he radiated love. And the way they looked at each other in this picture, the way Koro-sensei held her hand in his tentacle (open palms, as if this were the moment they met again after his death and he was astonished to simply see her again), even that stupid shirt she wore with the yellow octopus. She loved him so much she literally wore it on her sleeve. Maehara knew it, though he didn't ever see their interactions.

Maehara wanted to have a relationship like that. He hadn't achieved that yet, no matter how many girls he dated. But someday.

Maehara flipped through the pages of the book. He still hadn't finished it, because it was over a thousand pages long. A little pink sticky note in the shape of a heart was in between the pages.

 _Maehara-san,_

 _Koro-sensei has spent the better part of a year getting to know you and your personality. Your behavior. And while Koro-sensei can't pretend he isn't disappointed at times, I think you will do well with everything- your job, and yes your relationships. I've told you that it may be time to take a break from dating and figure yourself out. What do you want from a relationship? Figure that out, correct your admittedly less than excellent tendencies, and then find a girl. I know you'll go on to do great things, and make Koro-sensei proud, but you may need to slow down first._

 _I'll miss you,_

 _Koro-sensei_

That was the exact thing he needed to hear. So in spite of this whole occurrence, in spite of every thought that just crossed his mind, Maehara wrapped his coat around him with a smile on his face. Tomorrow, he'd break up with Aiko. Tomorrow, he'd encourage her to step out of that relationship, and focus on herself, and find a new boyfriend eventually.

And he'd do the same for himself.

* * *

 **My kokoro… I can't resist writing about all the shipping!**

 **About the Kyoto voting thing… I saw a post on tumblr a while ago (I can't find it) deducting who voted for whom (probably). It was a very well written and logical post that I stupidly didn't save. But it deduced through process of elimination that Chiba likely voted for Kanzaki for the above reasons. Just wanted to explain where I got that thought from. And o** **ne of the canonical books says that Kimura has a crush on Kurahashi. I forget which one.**

 **I also may edit this later... I'm at an anime club movie night and it's loud with the sounds of Pokemon. Anyways, please let me know what you thought in the reviews!**


	18. Trust

**Okay, so I was obviously wrong when I said this would be done by graduation. Sorry I keep making promises that I fail to deliver on, the week after finals was rough on me and I wasn't productive in any sense of the word. I can't give an ETA on the completion of this, but I will say that it has seven chapters left (a total of 25). It will be done when it's done. I'm sure you all understand.**

 **Also, I forgot to acknowledge you in the last AN because I was rushing but… Irradiance! If you're still reading this, I love your tumblr!**

 **I *think* I may be having issues with PMs. I am not sure. Please inform me in a review or something if you sent a PM to me and didn't get anything back, or if you were expecting one on my end and didn't get it. And as always, thanks for all reviews, favs, follows, and views.**

 **TW: Some mentions of gross body fluids incoming. Also quite a bit of profanity. Hope I don't alienate anyone.**

* * *

Christmas day. Deck the halls, Itona Horibe guessed, as he lay in bed staring at the ceiling, counting the spots that needed fresh paint. This was never really his favorite holiday. Too much cheer. Bell ringing, children singing, wreaths and holly and department stores all dolled up in red and green. Nope.

Or rather, it was already the day after Christmas. The clock read 2:33 am. Whatever, it wasn't like there was something to get up for tomorrow. Yay for winter break.

Itona spent it with his friends. That was what he wanted. It was the first 'merry' Christmas he had since childhood. This Chistmas was spent with Terasaka and his other buddies, the ones who adopted him following that asshole Yanagisawa's forsaking of him. The five of them had met up in that vacant lot behind the abandoned Mos Burger. They ended up staying until 9:00 pm, when they couldn't stand the cold anymore and migrated to Muramatsu's ramen shop. But it was too crowded so they went upstairs to Muramatsu's family's apartment and played cardgames. The Mos Burger had no heating or light now that it was abandoned.

Abandoned, like Itona, abandoned by many people. But other people took him in.

Maybe it was true that you were supposed to spend Christmas with your lover, but Itona had none. He saw futures in which the five of them spent Christmas together, just sitting at Muramatsu's ramen shop after closing time, complaining about work and that bitterness changing into laughter and joy by the end of the night.

Because in sincerity, he didn't see himself with a lover, ever. He was happy with these friends, and was indifferent to all of the couples he saw holding hands on the street today. Terasaka didn't have the skills or sophistication to charm a woman. Yoshida would be oblivious even if he did, and Muramatsu was Muramatsu. As for Hazama, she had remarked that no man could handle her. So why not stick together?

After they had all gone inside, the topic of conversation had changed from complaints about school to their funny little happenings since they had last seen each other two weeks ago. Hazama had laughed and showed them photos of Edgar Allen Poe. Edgar Allen Poe was the raven that had been coming by Hazama's house as of recent. She fed him corn and sunflower seeds and gave him bits of red string and buttons, which she had seen in his nest later. In one of her pictures, the exact moment it was taken was the moment that Hazama's mom had burst out of the house screeching like a harpy about something or another, and the look of shock on her face was priceless. And it was captured forever by the wonders of photography and smartphones. According to Hazama, Edgar just stared at her blankly and then looked back at the phone. That anecdote was laughter-inducing, for sure.

A spider dropped from the ceiling to the floor of Itona's room. It scurried across the floor and finally up the wall. In the dark, it was barely visible against the floor, but it stood out against the white walls to the acute vision that Itona had retained after the removal of his tentacles.

Less than a week ago, just a few hours after their finals ended, the news had been broken to 3-E that Yanagisawa had died. Karasuma knew, and he passed the info on to his students, though he admitted that the government had told him not to. A heart attack. It happened when a nurse came in to care for him, a nurse who allegedly bore quite the resemblance to Koro-sensei when he was a human, someone with yellow scrubs and and a big smile. The bastard's heart just stopped instantly. It was two days before his birthday.

And no one was happier than Itona.

If the rumors floating around were correct (and Itona liked to believe that they were indeed), he was never honored with a funeral at all, because no one missed him or would have attended. He was estranged from all of his family, and no one stuck around long enough to be called a friend. And what's more, he was never even cremated! The oven was off and the undertaker was the boyfriend of a woman to whom Yanagisawa had done some very bad things once (small world, eh?). So he couldn't even be bothered to turn it on, he just dug a shallow hole in the soil in a little patch of forest on his way home and dumped the corpse in it.

And allegedly, one of his classmates found the grave and pissed on it. The entire class unanimously suspected either Kayano or Terasaka, but neither confirmed nor denied it. Well, whoever it was, Itona was a bit insulted that he wasn't invited to join, and more than a bit wanted to high-five that person.

And speaking of Kayano, he had been talking to her a lot recently. Just the other day they met and hung out in the mountain that they ascended and descended every day for the better part of a year (or half a year, in his case). Those damn government employees had finally left that place alone, it only took them nine frigging months. The two former E Class assassins chatted, about anything- school, anime, the sweet shop that had opened up downtown (they ended up going there often), but their conversations would always end with the tentacles. The excruciating pain they caused. All the nights Itona spent awake crying and clawing at his head (a thing he wouldn't admit to anyone else), and how Kayano had figured out that whiskey isn't a bad painkiller (though it still only made a dent in the agony).

Then they'd both go silent and part ways.

How strange it was, that Itona was branching out _more_ after he'd graduated E Class? He was always told that after he graduated, he'd drift apart from his classmates, and that they'd become distant. But he was becoming closer, mostly to the people who were already his friends, but to people he wasn't particularly close to before this. He had been making friends at his high school, but they still weren't like 3-E. Itona's primary friend group was still in 3-E. His goal was to explore the strings and attachments of this group even more. After all, they were bound together by bloodlust, bonds forged by experiences that no one else had ever gone through, or would in the future. No one else in the world.

A message buzzed Itona's phone, jolting him up from his little contemplation. It was a Line message, one from the 3-E group chat.

 **Hiroto Maehara: Who else is up for another reunion? I've been talking with Isogai and we both agree that one should be coming up soon.**

 **Yuuma Isogai: This is true. I think you all know what day.**

 **Touka Yada: Sure, I will clear up my calendar.**

 **Megu Kataoka: That's exactly what I need right now.**

 **Hinano Kurahashi: Yes yes yes! I'll bring the flowers, they'll be beautiful in March.**

Itona's fingers moved on their own. He didn't even think about what he was typing, and he didn't need to because it came out exactly as he meant it.

 **Itona Horibe: No, we should** _ **all**_ **bring flowers. Just like we did last time.**

And then the groupchat went silent for minutes. It was clear- no one expected that from him. _Well, I'm just full of surprises and I'll keep on proving that._

Itona fell asleep there, with that thought on his mind. His dreams were pleasant, of himself at 35 years old still visiting Koro-sensei's memorial, flowers in hand, next to his four best friends, with their twenty-three other classmates around them.

* * *

 **AN: Almost 100 percent of the Japanese population is cremated. So basically the implication is no one could be bothered to give Yanagisawa basic respect after his death.**

 **Am I the only one who headcanons aromantic!Itona? I also like to think he became buddies with Kayano at some point, because y'know, tentacles. I seriously can't get away from writing about Kayano...**

 **Sorry, I'm wondering if this chapter was a bit much… Leave your opinions in the reviews please, and thanks as always.**


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